Energy-based control design for mechanical systems:Applications of the port-Hamiltonian approach

De moderne maatschappij vraagt naar robotsystemen die complexe taken kunnen uitvoeren onder verschillende omstandigheden. De steeds hogere eisen vanuit de industrie, hogere standaards en toepassingen in opkomende gebieden zoals huishoudelijke toepassingen (domotica) en mobiele robots, vereisen intelligente systemen die snel en nauwkeurig zijn. Dit proefschrift beschrijft de ontwikkeling van nieuwe regelmethoden voor niet-lineaire mechanische systemen volgens de energiegebaseerde benadering. De ontwikkelde regelmethoden bieden een oplossing om te voldoen aan de eis van snelle en nauwkeurige intelligente systemen. De ontwikkelde regelmethoden zijn geschikt voor algemene mechanische systemen, met simulaties en experimenten van een robot-manipulator

Passivity-Based Trajectory Tracking and Formation Control of Nonholonomic Wheeled Robots Without Velocity Measurements

This note proposes a passivity-based control method for trajectory tracking and formation control of nonholonomic wheeled robots without velocity measurements. Coordinate transformations are used to incorporate the nonholonomic constraints, which are then avoided by controlling the front end of the robot rather than the center of the wheel axle into the differential equations. Starting from the passivity-based coordination design, the control goals are achieved via an internal controller for velocity tracking and heading control and an external controller for formation in the port-Hamiltonian framework. This approach endows the resulting controller with a physical interpretation. To avoid unavailable velocity measurements or unreliable velocity estimations, we derive the distributed control law with only position measurements by introducing a dynamic extension. In addition, we prove that our approach is suitable not only for acyclic graphs but also for a class of non-acyclic graphs, namely, ring graphs. Simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach

Tracking Control of Fully-actuated port-Hamiltonian Mechanical Systems via Sliding Manifolds and Contraction Analysis

In this paper, we propose a novel trajectory tracking controller for fully-actuated mechanical port-Hamiltonian (pH) systems, which is based on recent advances in contraction- based control theory. Our proposed controller renders a desired sliding manifold (where the reference trajectory lies) attractive by making the corresponding pH error system partially contracting. Finally, we present numerical simulation results where a SCARA robot is commanded by our proposed tracking control law