For information, Russ Tedrake, from MIT, is giving a course for free on EDX about underactuated robotics.
For the one who want to see automatics differently, and to practise it, I think it is a good course. (I will do it)
Some of us, in the flowers team, will also follow this course.
Maybe can we use this topic to discuss any potential applications of this research topic on Poppy humanoids ?
In the course of this week, a presentation is done about the Matlab Toolbox “Drake” which is given with this course. The very crazy thing is that there is the code to control humanoid robot named “Atlas” the robot produced by Boston Dynamics.
So, THERE will be application of this class on Poppy (or Alion in my case) with Pypot.
Just wait… 
For the moment, I enjoy the class. It is not classic control. And you in Poppy team ?
Here are the course notes:
Russ Tedrake. Underactuated Robotics: Algorithms for Walking, Running, Swimming, Flying, and Manipulation (Course Notes for MIT 6.832). Downloaded in Fall, 2014 from http://people.csail.mit.edu/russt/underactuated/
in the same range, some food for though here
http://cswww.essex.ac.uk/staff/owen/machine/cronos.html
on one the best extract:
"the only resemblance these robots have to real humans is external and superficial: they look like us, but their operationalprinciples are so far removed from our own that there is little prospect that their incremental refinement will result in anything better than more of the same.
What is the problem? Skin. This opaque envelope conceals its contents from our perceptual apparatus, and prevents us from paying enough attention to what lies within. We therefore overvalue human-like shape, and undervalue human-like functioning."
and the best proof is the walking mechanics that use no electronics and still walk like an human.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/shc17/Robot/Robot_walkingVideos.htm
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