I'm convinced robotics and intelligent robot design will be the equivalent of the microprocessor in the coming decade. How can I develop a solid foundation in knowing how to make things that move and go? (If I've confused multiple disciplines, feel free to set me straight)
What you mean by "robotics" ?<p>You want to move a robotic arm so that it is fast and accurate (eg. don't break the crystal shield it is moving), that is automation.
To study automation you need a lot of math, matrix and vector, complex calculus, geometry, trigonometric and transformation (Fourier Laplace) and a lot of other stuff that I do not know.<p>You want a robot to recognize human face so it can make some particular action ?
Now you should be looking into AI, computer vision and classification.
You will need a lot of math, matrix and vector, calculus in more variable and a lot of stuff that I don't know.<p>You want to control n-thousand little robot so they can cooperate to make something great ? Now you should look at parallel computation and distribute system.<p>You will need a lot of math, matrix and vector, probably fuzzy logic.<p>What I am try to say is that "Robotics" means pretty much nothing and everything, however if you study a lot of math and matrix and vector you are pretty much covered...
Like many other complex systems, a full-blown robot is comprised of several separate systems working in tandem. For one person to be or become an expert in all would be unreasonable, at least for a standard mortal. Depending on your particular inclinations, different areas may be more or less suitable for exploration. There is also the question of specialisation versus broad-oversight, as well as that of making custom components versus using ready-made ones. Some particular areas to consider are:<p>(a) Vision systems, which further subdivides into hardware and software components. The industry could use some better performing cameras (think low-light, high frame-rate) with reasonable prices, so that is one area needing development. Popular software systems, such as the open source OpenCV, definitely need work.<p>(b) Audition systems. Since there is already quite top-notch audio hardware available at reasonable prices, I opine that the software side is more in need of serious help, particularly in the areas of speech recognition.<p>(c) Vocalisation systems. More natural and emotional voice-production systems would be nice, particularly if available open source.<p>Note: Both audition and vocalisation have open areas for less-popular languages. These systems really ought not be limited to English.<p>(d) Basic mechanical systems, which subdivides into functional and aesthetics. There is certainly room for improvement here.<p>(e) Electrical systems, such as wires, motors, and relays. There are also interesting developments here such as synthetic-electric muscle fibres -- both mechanical and electrical.<p>(f) Testing. Like many other complex systems, there is often a need for testing.<p>(g) Psychology. If the machine interacts directly with humans or other animals, there is an element of psychology involved, even in simple systems such as automated tellers.<p>(h) Environmental impact, both in production and deployment.<p>(i) Security. If the system is accessible to the public in one way or another, then security probably matters.<p>(j) Artifical intelligence and other broad-level perspectives. This area is related to game AI, and it applies to both robots and fully-virtual systems alike.<p>... And quite a few other areas.
Start now! There are great introductions out there.
Good luck, I want to get back into robotics myself.<p><a href="https://www.udacity.com/course/cs373" rel="nofollow">https://www.udacity.com/course/cs373</a><p><a href="http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=86cc8662-f6e4-43c3-a1be-b30d1d179743" rel="nofollow">http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=86cc8662-f...</a><p><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/autonomous-mobile-robots-ethx-amrx#.VRrepvnF_L8" rel="nofollow">https://www.edx.org/course/autonomous-mobile-robots-ethx-amr...</a><p><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/robot-mechanics-control-part-i-snux-snu446-345-1x#.VRreq_nF_L8" rel="nofollow">https://www.edx.org/course/robot-mechanics-control-part-i-sn...</a><p><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/autonomous-navigation-flying-robots-tumx-autonavx#.VRrervnF_L8" rel="nofollow">https://www.edx.org/course/autonomous-navigation-flying-robo...</a><p><a href="https://www.edx.org/course/underactuated-robotics-mitx-6-832x#.VRres_nF_L8" rel="nofollow">https://www.edx.org/course/underactuated-robotics-mitx-6-832...</a><p><a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/conrob" rel="nofollow">https://www.coursera.org/course/conrob</a><p>If you are missing some math to understand these, those classes are online too.
Take a look at the project I work on: bitbloq.bq.com it is mostly to teach robotics to kids and how a program works. It is also a gentle introduction to arduino.