Reading Room
The Fictionlab Blog
Explore a mix of technical guides, industry insights, and stories from inside our Robot house. Whether it’s engineering deep dives, business analysis, or the history behind our rover competitions, this is where we share our knowledge and culture.
Published With Leo Rover: Peer-Reviewed Papers and What They Measured
How to cite research that used Leo Rover correctly: what counts as verified experimental use of the platform, which papers…
Read more AMR or UGV? Why a Warehouse Robot Fails the Moment It Goes Outdoors
Why a warehouse AMR can struggle outdoors: terrain, suspension, localization, IP rating and connectivity separate indoor robots from field UGVs…
Read more Robots as Exhibits: Using a Mobile Platform in Science Centres and at Trade Shows
Using a mobile robot as an exhibit in science centres or at trade shows: crowd safety, all-day runtime, staff-friendly operation…
Read more Terrestrial Rovers in Space Analog Testing: How Labs Simulate Planetary Missions
How labs rehearse planetary missions on Earth with terrestrial rovers: analog terrain, communication delay and power limits, and the conditions…
Read more UGVs on Construction Sites: Progress Monitoring, Scanning and Site Safety
How UGVs support construction sites: repeatable progress documentation, 3D scanning and off-hours safety checks, plus the dust, access and GNSS…
Read more Teaching ROS 2 With One Robot: An 8-Week Course Outline for Universities
An eight-week ROS 2 course built around one shared robot: weekly objectives, simulation-first exercises, hands-on rotations, grading criteria and a…
Read more Robot Platforms for Infrastructure Inspection: What Buyers Get Wrong
Four mistakes buyers make with infrastructure inspection robots, from oversized platforms to no data plan or comms fallback, and how…
Read more A Rugged Wheeled Base for Agricultural Field Trials: What Breaks First and Why
What breaks first on a wheeled base during agricultural field trials: connectors, seals, bearings and mounts under mud, dust and…
Read more Validating a ROS 2 Stack in Simulation Before You Take It Outdoors
What Gazebo can and cannot validate in your ROS 2 stack before field tests: navigation logic, TF and behavior trees…
Read more IP54, IP55 and IP66: What an IP Rating Really Means for a Field Robot
What IP54, IP55 and IP66 actually mean for a field robot: both digits of the code explained, how rain and…
Read more From Box to First Autonomous Run in One Afternoon: A Realistic Onboarding Timeline
From unboxing to a first autonomous run in one afternoon: a realistic hour-by-hour Leo Rover onboarding timeline and the steps…
Read more Integrating a New Sensor Into a Rover: Mounting, Power, Wiring and the ROS 2 Driver
A repeatable five-step process for adding a new sensor to a rover: rigid mount, power budget, data interface, ROS 2…
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