Path planning and control for planar multibody systems using internal controls
John E. Hurtado, John E. Hurtado · 35th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit · 1997
We develop simple path planning and inverse kinematics control strategies for planar, multibody systems. We assume that the multibody systems are subject to internal control torques only and there are no exogenous inputs. Thus, the angular momentum of the system is a constant of motion and represents a nonintegrable path constraint. Our path planning strategies for large-angle, nonlinear maneuvers of the system involves prescribing a subset of the generalized coordinates to be polynomials in time, and using the angular momentum path constraint to determine the remaining generalized coordinate profiles. Examples are presented to demonstrate the new methods introduced. We also discuss three optimal control solution methods for these systems and we present optimal control maneuvers. (Author)