Robot control from scratch

[mhl]

Hi.
Me I my friends want to revive an old robot, Polish Irb-6 from PIAP, under ABB license. The problem is, there are only mechanical parts with DC motors, no electronics. We want to design and make control circuits, to communicate with PC, and implement inverse kinematics, etc. Did someone do such thigs? Do someone know any good literature to read, to know what to do? 
Best Regards.

[SkyeFire]

That's a project worthy of a graduate degree in Control Systems Theory.

For the software end, you could start with OROCOS or Willow Garage's ROS.  Hardware... Hm.  That'll depend a lot on what those motors need to drive them.