A New Approach for Motion Control of Constrained Mechanical Systems: Using Udwadia-Kalaba′s Equations of Motion

A new approach for motion control of constrained mechanical systems is proposed in this paper. The approach uses a new equations of motion which is proposed by Udwadia and Kalaba and named Udwadia-Kalaba's equations of motion in this paper. This paper reveals that the Udwadia-Kalaba's equations of motion is more adequate to model constrained mechanical systems rather than the famous Lagrange's equations of motion at least for control purpose. The proposed approach coverts most of constraints including holonomic and nonholonomic constraints. Comparison of simulation results of two systems which are well-known in the literature show the superiority of the proposed approach. Furthermore, a special constrained mechanical system which includes nonlinear generalized velocities in its constraint equations, which has been considered to be difficult to control, can be controlled easily. It shows the possibility of the proposed approach to being a general framework for motion control of constrained mechanical systems with various kinds of constraints.