Mechanics and Nonlinear Control: Making Underwater Vehicles Ride and Glide
N.E. Leonard
Plenary lecture in Proceedings of the 4th IFAC Nonlinear Control Design
Symposium (NOLCOS), Enschede, The Netherlands,
July 1998, p. 1-6.
Abstract
Methods from geometric mechanics and dynamical
systems theory make use of structure in mechanical
systems to provide insight into system behavior.
Tools have been developed
that exploit symmetry in Hamiltonian and Lagrangian
systems for stability and bifurcation analysis.
Recent work has focused on integrating such tools
into mechanical control system design methods
such that mechanical structure is used to advantage.
In this paper, techniques are described that apply
geometric mechanics and dynamical systems theory
for stabilization and motion control of mechanical
systems. The techniques are presented in the context
of controlling underwater vehicle maneuvers.
The underwater vehicle control system serves
as a practical application,
a rich source of challenging nonlinear control problems
and an inspiration for mechanics-based control solutions.
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