Stabilizability and Motion Tracking Conditions for Mechanical Nonholonomic Control Systems

This paper addresses formulation of stabilizability and motion tracking conditions for mechanical systems from the point of view of constraints put on them. We present a new classification of constraints, which includes nonholonomic constraints that arise in both mechanics and control. Based on our classification we develop kinematic and dynamic control models of systems subjected to these constraints. We demonstrate that a property of being a “hard-to-control” nonholonomic system may not be related to the nature of the constraints. It may result from the formulation of control objectives for a system. We examine two control objectives which are stabilization to the target equilibrium by a continuous static state feedback control and motion tracking. Theory is illustrated with examples of control objective formulations for systems with constraints of various types.