An open, community-maintained glossary of robotics concepts, hardware, software, and ecosystems — inspired by the Modal GPU Glossary, with extended coverage of the NVIDIA robotics ecosystem.

Robotics spans many disciplines—control theory, computer vision, embedded systems, AI, and mechanical engineering. As a result:

1. The same term can mean different things in different contexts
2. Important concepts are scattered across textbooks, wikis, and vendor docs
3. Beginners struggle to build a mental map of how concepts relate

This glossary is meant to be a navigation layer, not a replacement for textbooks, papers, or standards.

• Concepts — kinematics, coordinate frames, SLAM, sensor fusion
• Hardware — LiDAR, IMUs, Jetson platforms, compute modules
• Software — ROS 2, Isaac Sim, MoveIt2, Nav2

Heavy focus on the NVIDIA robotics stack since that's what I work with most.

Spot an error? Want to add a term? Open a PR or start a discussion.

If you’re unsure whether a term belongs here, open an issue and start a discussion.

The best knowledge is gained from the actual sources:

1. NVIDIA documentation: https://docs.nvidia.com/
2. ROS2 documentation (check the specifics for your ROS2 distro): https://docs.ros.org/
3. Carlos Argueta's course specialized on ROS2 & NVIDIA: https://cm.s1s2.ai/
4. IEEE Robots Guide (fantastic resource to catch up on latest + interviews of stalwards): https://robotsguide.com/learn