which course books to follow, which websites to go on(sounds naive, but a lot of material on the web is completely irrelevant).
in other words, a person who has prior experience in robotics and can guide me through the process.
My field is robotics -> reassembly robotics.
I'm a tutor for control engineering at my uni among others.
I'm going to be straight up with you, control engineering/programming is not an easy field to master. It's sexy and you can use it to pick up chicks at parties, but you'll lose your hair while studying it. 60% of people in my class do NOT pass.
Nise, N. S. Control Systems Engineering, 3rd ed
.: John Wiley & Sons, 2000
Dorf, R.C. & Bishop, R. H. Modern Control Systems
, 12th ed
.: Pearson 2011
^ The above books are highly recommended for the course I teach.
I would also suggest you 'acquire' MATLAB. I am not familiar with C++, but the programming part is not so difficult.
You need to have a strong base in applied mathematics. You need to know how to manipulate quaternions. Use screw theory to manipulate 6-n dimensional subspaces. You will need to have a firm grasp on Euler, Hamilton and Freudensteins work.
My first question to you is, are you able to tell me how to manipulate 3D space using 4D quaternions?
After you answer that I can further guide you.
Okay a caveat; I'm not a fan of doing anything half-assed. Which is why I require myself and those I teach to have a firm grasp on all the concepts which make up the area of study.