In this paper we generate gaits for two types of underactuated mechanical systems: principally kinematic and purely mechanical systems. Our goal is to specify inputs in the form of gaits, that is, a sequence of controlled shape changes of a multi-bodied mechanical system that when executed would produce a desired change in the unactuated position or orientation variables of the entire mechanica...

This paper presents an optimal shape trajectory planner for shape-accelerated underactuated balancing systems, which are destabilized by gravitational forces. These systems have unactuated shape variables and fully actuated external variables. They also have the same number of actuated and unactuated degrees of freedom. Their equations of motion result in nonholonomic acceleration/dynamic const...

In this paper, we tackle the problem of trajectory tracking for a particular class of underactuated vehicles with full torque actuation and a single force direction (thrust), which is fixed relative to a body attached frame. Additionally, we consider that thrust reversal is not available. Under some given assumptions, the control law that we propose is able to track a smooth reference position ...

Control of underactuated mechanical systems (robots) represents an important class of control problem. In this correspondence, a model-based adaptive variable structure control scheme is introduced, where the uncertainty bounds only depend on the inertia parameters of the system. Global asymptotic stability is established in the Lyapunov sense. Numerical simulations are conducted to validate th...

This paper presents a control la w for the tracking of an optimal reference trajectory by an underactuated biped robot. The degree of under-actuation is one during the single support phase. The control law is de ned in the following way. Only the geometric evolution of the robot is controlled, not its temporal evolution. To achiev e this objective, we consider a set of reference trajectories pa...

We provide stabilizing and tracking feedback control laws for the kinematic system of an underactuated axisymmetric spacecraft subject to input constraints. As a special case we also provide a feedback control to track a specified direction in inertial space. All proposed control laws achieve asymptotic stability with exponential convergence. One of the novelties of the proposed control design ...

We study the simultaneous control of three dimensional translation and rotation of an underactuated multibody space robot using sliding masses that are configured as ideal prismatic actuators. A crucial assumption is that the total linear and angular momenta of the space robot are zero. The prismatic actuators may be intentional actuation devices or they may be dual-use devices such as retracta...

A manoeuvring model and a design technique for path following applications of underactuated underwater vehicles are summarized. The model applies to slender body autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) of cylindrical shape employing similar types of steering and diving control surfaces, and is meant for low speed manoeuvring applications. The underactuated design procedure used to successfully sol...

Abstract— In this paper, new swing-up controller for a threelink underactuated robot using a technique of horizontal bar gymnast is proposed. This controller is designed based on an equivalent center of mass(ECM) of the gymnast and the robot. The ECM of the gymnasts(ECMG) derived by analyzing a video data and a proposed controller is designed in order to realize that the ECM of the robot imitat...

Sliding mode control design is a powerful method for robust control of nonlinear dynamical systems. We analyze the control of multivariable mechanical systems with less inputs than degrees of freedom. An existing method is based on a separation of the actuated configuration variables from the unactuated variables. It relies on a sliding surface constituted by a linear combination of the control...