Passivity-Based Distributed Control of Networked Euler-Lagrange Systems With Nonholonomic Constraints

In this report, we study the distributed control problem of networked Euler-Lagrange(EL) systems with nonholonomic constraints. The reason for singling out this particular topic is that distributed control of networked Euler-Lagrange systems with nonholonomic constraints captures a large class of contemporary engineering problems, such as rendezvous problem and formation problem. We propose a new set-up which allows us to use passivity as the design and analysis tool to solve our proposed problem here. By restricting ourselves to systems with physical constraints and by using passivity, we believe we can contribute to reverse the tide of “find a plant for my controller ”which still permeates most of the research work on distributed control.