I’m currently enrolled in the ROS 2 Navigation course and have an active paid subscription.
For several weeks, the real TurtleBot in the Real Robot Lab has been down or unreliable, which has made it impossible to complete the required exercises.
I understand from previous support responses that the issue with the real robot has already been confirmed multiple times, but unfortunately it still hasn’t been resolved.
Since access to the real TurtleBot is a core part of the course and required for the ROS 2 Navigation certificate, the continued downtime means I’ve been unable to use a key feature that I’m paying for.
Could you please let me know:
When the real TurtleBot is expected to be fully functional again, or
Whether it’s possible to receive an alternative option or refund for the past few weeks where the robot has not been working properly?
Thank you for your help and for maintaining the Real Robot Lab — it’s a great resource when it’s available.
Hi Soren,
you are completely right. The lab has been unreliable on the last few weeks.
Along those weeks, we were trying to just replace small parts to solve the issues. But that didn’t work. We tried many things but none worked. So a bigger action needed to be taken.
Today we are finally replacing the full robot completely. We are replacing the T3 robot by the Fastbot whose hardware we control and know from top to bottom (because we created). Also, T3 is no longer available for sale.
Your projects may require a small adaptation. It depends on what your project is about (for instance, for basic ROS it is not needed, but for navigation, you may need some small modifications since the rotation center is not at the center of the robot).
The lab with the new robot will be ready tomorrow Wednesday the 21st October 2025.
I apologize for all the trouble we created to you and others. It was completely our fault, and now it is our priority number one to have that lab back and running seamlessly.
Let us refund your last payment so you can at least recover your money investment.
Thanks for getting back, and acknowledging the issues.
I am happy that you will refund me for the last weeks, but of course I would like to see the lab running.
I sounds like a good solution to replace the full robot, and I am looking forward to have the new robot running.
On that, I just tried now to book and run the new FastBot, and it did not work. I was sent to the old TurtleBot course/area and the robot could not move as usual.
Is it up running yet with FastBot or is it still in progress?
I was using the new Construct environment when I tried, don’t know if it should work there or I need to use the old environment?
I will try again now also using the old environment to be sure.
What you are showing is the T3. The Fastbot is still not in place. It is going to be available in the next hours. We will let you know about this with a notification when it is available.
Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. I’m really sorry for the trouble this is causing you and all the other students. We are solving the problem now once and for all
