In this paper, we apply the interconnection and damping assignment passivity—based control design technique to the underactuated mechanical system called pendubot. The proposed control system drives a class of pendubot systems to the upward configuration, starting from a neighborhood of this configuration. Simulation results show the performance of the proposed control system.

There is a lack of agreement in the literature as to what exactly quantifies the performance of underactuated hands. This paper proposes two benchmark tests to measure the ability of underactuated hands to grasp different objects and the ability to hold the objects when force disturbances apply. The first test determines the smallest and largest cylindrical object which can be successfully gras...

This paper introduces a new concept for designing a fuzzy logic based switching controller in order to control underactuated manipulators. The proposed controller employs elemental controllers, which are designed in advance. Parameters of both antecedent and consequent parts of a fuzzy indexer are optimized by using evolutionary computation, which is performed off-line. Design parameters of the...

The robotic hands can be divided into two major groups: fully-actuated and underactuated hands. In fully-actuated hands all the joints have separate motors, while in underactuated hands the number of motors is less than number of degrees of freedom. The underactuated hands can adapt to the object shape by use of their mechanical design while they have less functionality. A relationship between ...

It is often suggested that hand prostheses and robot grippers must possess a kinematic structure that is similar to those of the natural human hand [1-4]. Such structure allows better adaptation of the gripper to the size and the shape of the grasped object and better cosmetic effect. Anthropomorphic hands with a large number of joints are highly dexterous, but their independent joint control r...

This paper presents an adaptive fuzzy backstepping control method that incorporates the dynamic equilibrium state (DES) theory to carry out path tracking for underactuated ships in presence of parameter variations and external disturbances induced by wind, wave and current. First, the optimal DES reference trajectories are designed for the sway displacement and the yaw angle. Then, by combining...

This paper derives nonlinear feedback control synthesis for general control affine systems using second-order actions—the needle variations of optimal control—as the basis for choosing each control response to the current state. A second result of the paper is that the method provably exploits the nonlinear controllability of a system by virtue of an explicit dependence of the second-order need...

In this paper, we address nonlinear control and reduction of high-order underactuated mechanical systems with kinetic symmetry and input coupling. In some aerospace vehicles, the effects of the control of the attitude dynamics appears in the translational dynamics. We present a general framework for decoupling of these effects. The decoupling is done by applying a change of coordinates in expli...

1 Overview This brief report summarizes our recent research eeorts on the underactuated vehicle control problem. I will describe the papers and books I reviewed this week and comment on a new literature search. I will also summarize the steps we have taken toward solving the control problem for the vehicle and our current plans for the next few weeks. You will notice that the main title of this...