The sought goal of this thesis is to show that total energy shaping is an effective and versatile tool to control underactuated mechanical systems. The performance of several approaches, rooted in the port-Hamiltonian formalism, are analyzed while tackling distinct control
problems: i) equilibrium stabilization; ii) gait generation; iii) gait robustication. Firstly, a constructive solution to deal with interconnection
and damping assignment passivity-based control (IDA-PBC) for underactuated two-degree-of-freedom mechanical systems is proposed. This strategy does not involve the resolution of any partial differential equation, since explicit solutions are given, while no singularities depending
on generalized momenta are introduced by the controller. The methodology is applied to the stabilization of a translational oscillator with a rotational actuator system, as well as, to the gait generation for
an underactuated compass-like biped robot (CBR). Then, the problem of gait generation is addressed using dissipative forces in the controller. In this sense, three distinct controllers are presented, namely simultaneous
interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control
with dissipative forces, energy pumping-and-damping passivity-based control (EPD-PBC), and energy pumping-or-damping control. Finally, EPD-PBC is used to increase the robustness of the gait exhibited by the CBR over uncertainties on the initial conditions. The passivity of the system is exploited, as well as, its hybrid nature (using the hybrid zero dynamics method) to carry out the stability analysis. Besides, such an approach is applied to new gaits that are generated using IDA-PBC.
Numerical case studies, comparisons, and critical discussions evaluate the performance of the proposed approaches
