Maneuvering control of a rolling four-links robot (Q1827230)

The paper deals with the maneuvering control of the planar motion of a rolling four-links robot (RFLR). The RFLR is a constrained multibody system which can be considered to be a simplified model of an articulated mobile crane. The system is composed of four uniform links, three actuated joints, two identical wheels, one of which is actuated, and a mass attached to the central joint. There are a total of four applied torques. The problem that is addressed is to develop control laws such that the mass performs prescribed maneuvers in the vertical plane over a finite-time horizon \([0, t_f]\) where \(t_f>0\) is given. A procedure is proposed for solving the posed problem. This procedure involves the application of two inverse dynamic transformations in order to derive tracking control laws for RFLR such that the controlled variables track the prescribed reference trajectories.