Comment by bsoles
5 days ago
When I took the robotics course in grad school, we spent so much time on inverse kinematics and other complex math. It was pretty intense and gave me the perception that robotics was pretty difficult.
Yet, today, people easily build simple robots using a few rc servos and an Arduino. Somehow kinematics is not really essential if you just want to build simple robotic toys. The pedagogy of robotics courses could have been so much better...
Many robotics tasks can be solved by linear motors and grippers. Not everybody needs to make 6 DoF arms. Nor they need machine-learning enhanced optimal control. Grad schools prepare you for the basics of the hardest possible systems.
On the engineering side the number of difficult problems with robotics is enormous. Even the simplest systems will fail pretty badly outside lab. No two robots will work the same. As a grad student those are the things you learn on top of IK at work. So if you get employed for designing actual 6+ DoF systems and missing the theoretical stuff you'll be way behind.
However, for self teaching and hobby stuff, just making a simple robot work reliably is still a difficult task with lots of learning potential. It may not cover complex arms but you may actually gain knowledge to solve the engineering part of the problems which is a huge boost for theories.