Motor control is a very broad topic. It touches on traditional electronic design, power design, signals, physical properties, math, embedded systems...I actually can't think of an area it doesn't touch. There are experts in the field who spend their entire life improving the discipline. As a non-expert, I just want to make robots walk. As such, I want to know the "how" and fill in the "why" when it matters or when curiosity strikes. I hope that this talk to be similarly pragmatic and practical. You should take away what you need to make the majority of motorized projects.

I'm grouping the discussion of motor control into 3 buckets:

1. Motors (well, actuators) and their properties
2. Systems (power and silicon)
3. Software (1's and 0's)

For the sake of brevity, here are topics that I think should be in and those that should be out:

In

• Brushed, AC & DC
• Servo , Hobby & Industrial
• Stepper, uni/bi polar (touch on n-pole)
• Brushless, hobby bldc (touch on high-output like e-bikes)
• Using discrete components
• Motor drivers/controllers
• Picking a controller
• Interfacing with an embedded controller

Out

• Exotic actuators (linear, piezo, "smart servos", wax)
• Pneumatics
• Less interesting actuators like solenoids (on the fence)
• Mechanical control via cams, gears and leprechaun magic
• Protocols like CAN & RS-485
• Closed-loop (ignore servos, k?)
• Motor Control Theory like PID (whole other talk)
• Kinematics

I plan on mentioning and linking to resources on the topics I'm leaving out.

Anyone reading this - what do you think? Anything else you'd like to see covered? Something thought really out to be in?

Let me know!

./jonathanberi