Robotics Tier 3 — Family Indexes
Encyclopedic discovery layer for robotics. Where the Tier 1 deep notes teach a topic, Tier 3 family indexes catalogue “what’s out there in this neighbourhood” — exhaustive tables of motor types, sensor variants, gripper morphologies, planning algorithms, etc.
Robotics Tier 3: 14 / 14 family-index notes (2026-05-23).
Families
| Status | Family | File | Lines | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Done | Motor families (robotics-specific) | motor-families | 349 | frameless TBM, servo, stepper, coreless, pancake, DD, linear, voice-coil, piezo, USM, cobot SEA, Dynamixel |
| Done | Sensor families | sensor-families | 613 | encoders, IMU, LiDAR, depth, RGB, event, radar, F/T, tactile, current |
| Done | End-effector zoo | end-effectors-zoo | 327 | parallel-jaw / 3-finger / dexterous hand / suction / magnetic / soft / Bernoulli / gecko / tool magazines |
| Done | End-effector taxonomy (product-tables) | end-effector-taxonomy | 267 | vendor + part numbers: Robotiq / Schunk / OnRobot / SMC / Festo / Zimmer / IAI / Schmalz / Piab / Coval / Magswitch / Goudsmit + soft + Bernoulli + wafer + F/T + tool-changers |
| Done | Manipulator topologies | manipulator-topologies | 407 | serial 4/5/6/7-DoF, SCARA, Cartesian, delta, hexapod, dual-arm, humanoid, mobile-manip |
| Done | Mobile base configurations | mobile-bases | 326 | diff drive / skid steer / Ackermann / mecanum / omni / Swerve / tracked / ball / rocker-bogie |
| Done | Legged morphologies | legged-morphologies | 365 | biped + avian + quadruped + hexapod + actuation styles (hydraulic / QDD / SEA) |
| Done | Motor drive electronics | motor-drive-electronics | 312 | H-bridge / 3-phase / FOC / VFD / stepper / SiC EV / ODrive / Moteus / servo drives |
| Done | Perception sensors | perception-sensors | 341 | LiDAR scanning / MEMS / OPA / FMCW + depth ToF / stereo / SL / plenoptic + RGB / DVS + radar |
| Done | Path-planning algorithms | path-planning-algorithms | 376 | Dijkstra / A*/ JPS / D* / RRT family / BIT* / CHOMP / STOMP / TrajOpt / lattice / Dubins / DWA / TEB / MPPI |
| Done | SLAM algorithms | slam-algorithms | 306 | filtering / pose-graph / factor-graph + ORB-SLAM3 / VINS / Cartographer / LIO-SAM / FAST-LIO2 / KinectFusion / NeRF-SLAM |
| Done | Control algorithms | control-algorithms | 403 | PID variants + LQR / LQG / H∞ / SMC + MRAC / L1 + MPC / iLQR / ILC + RL (PPO/SAC/Dreamer) + Diffusion + foundation |
| Done | Industrial robot controllers + software | industrial-robot-controllers-and-software | 315 | Fanuc R-30iB + ABB OmniCore + KUKA KR C5 + Yaskawa YRC1000 + UR PolyScope + Comau C5G + Stäubli CS9 + Kawasaki + Epson + Mitsubishi + Denso + cobot stacks + ROS 2 + Drake / MuJoCo / Isaac Sim / Gazebo / RoboDK / Visual Components / Process Simulate / Delmia |
| Done | Robot platform catalog | robot-platform-catalog | 323 | Fanuc / ABB / KUKA / Yaskawa industrial 6-DoF + UR / Doosan / Techman / Kassow / Franka cobots + MiR / OTTO / Geek+ / Locus AMRs + Atlas / Figure / Apollo / Digit / Phoenix / Optimus / Neo / Unitree humanoids + Spot / ANYmal / Vision 60 / Unitree quadrupeds + DJI / Skydio / Parrot / AgEagle drones + BlueROV / Hugin / Saildrone / Bluefin / Sabertooth subsea + da Vinci / Mako / Hugo / Versius / ExcelsiusGPS / Monarch surgical |
How to use
- Read Robotics/Tier 1 deep notes for substantive engineering knowledge.
- Browse Tier 3 family indexes when surveying alternatives.
- Cross-reference Engineering/ for the underlying disciplines (statics, materials, electromagnetics, control theory).
- Cross-reference Languages/Tier3 for description-formats (URDF, SDF, ROS 2 launch DSLs, OpenSCENARIO, etc.).