Underactuated Robotics
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this advanced course on controlling robots that cannot maintain full command over every degree of freedom at every instant, the way animals move when they run, jump, or fly rather than moving with cautious rigidity. The course covers nonlinear dynamics of robotic manipulators, optimal and robust control, and motion planning, using computational methods throughout rather than purely analytical ones. Applications include legged locomotion, compliant manipulation, underwater robots, and flying machines, with recurring comparisons to how biological systems solve the same problems. Materials include lecture notes, assignments, and course readings from MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, taught by Russ Tedrake. The course assumes strong prior background in dynamics and control and is aimed at graduate-level study of nonlinear systems.