CONTROL-PROBLEMS IN SUPER-ARTICULATED MECHANICAL SYSTEMS

Control of super-articulated mechanical systems (SAMS: controlled mech anical system in which the dimension of the configuration space exceed s the dimension of the control input space) is studied. As a starting point, a graphical characterization of general SAMS IS is developed in which a so-called control how diagram (CFD) is constructed to represe nt the interaction forces among the degrees of freedom of the system; three types of structure, namely, the chain structure, the tree struct ure and isolated points, are identified; degree of complexity of the s ystem is defined based on the structure of the system. A systematic ba ckstepping type controller design is proposed for systems with a chain structure to achieve global asymptotic stability and trajectory track ing. Such a controller design itself illustrates the sufficient condit ions for the existence of smooth feedback control such that the system s with a chain structure can be globally asymptotically stabilized. Th e connection of our control algorithm with existing results is discuss ed.