Using the Algebraic Structure of Articulated RobotDynamics in Control Design 1

We discuss the algebraic structure of the dynamics of articulated multibody systems and how it may be effectively used in control design. The dynamics has a decomposition consisting of matrix operators satisfying many identities and giving insight into the dynamical system. To show the utility of this formalism, we investigate a disturbance attenuation control problem. We introduce a meaningful performance index which has an interesting interpretation in terms of thènormalized' robot dynamics. Finally, we derive a new adaptive controller using the local structure found in the dynamics and test it on a 3-link planar robot arm.