One of the things that I've always enjoyed about robotics is that it is a 'systems' discipline. It employs mechanical, electrical, and software components into a complete system. My experience after 25 years of robotics club meetings is that there are few people who can 'do it all' and that means you pretty much have to team up with people who have complementary skill sets.

So depending on where you find yourself most comfortable consider focusing on that part of the problem. Could be algorithms (software focus), could be mechanics, could be 'mechatronics' (which is the term the local community college uses for a combined electronics/mechanical engineering sort of curriculum).

For software - OpenCV, ROS (robot operating system) are good places to start. Unfortunately most robot research in universities suffer from a very bad 'not invented here' syndrome, so a lot of wheels are reinvented over and over. It has been about 5 years since I seriously payed attention to the software ecosystem so this might be out of date.

For embedded hardware, I'm a big fan of the BeagleBone Black. People talk a lot about the Raspberry Pi, but the BeagleBone makes a bit more sense. Look at the OpenROV project as a good example of that.

Lower level, there is a lot of stuff related to feedback controlled (closed loop) motor controllers that is key.

Higher level, pathfinding AI is interesting. Even things like inverse kinematics, thought that is largely a solved problem.

Some of my favorite books are Probabilistic Robotics for the theoretical stuff, and Robot Builders Bonanza for the really practical hobbyist stuff.

Another great hardware platform, the Jetson TK1. Much more capable than the Pi (I can't speak on the BeagleBone), and even though it's new it has great software support (OpenGL, OpenCV, CUDA).

http://elinux.org/Jetson_TK1

> where to even start with robotics

With an EE, CS, or ME degree? Minor in biology. Nature has made by far the best robots. Definitely useful to learn from it.

I once read a fascinating article about a grasshopper(?) that uses such a fast and sudden movement to jump that the only way it could keep its two legs in sync was with a biological "gear", with teeth and everything.

Edit: Found it: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/this-insect-has...

100% agree with the nature comment. You'd enjoy this ted talk by Robert Full (if you haven't already seen it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ascql_RoeBU

If you want to start now and have fun immediately I recommend picking up Lego Mindstorms: http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/?domainredir=mindstorms...