Applications and prospect of the nonlinear decoupling method (Q1962644)

The authors demonstrate the usefulness of the nonlinear decoupling method in robotics. They firstly indicate how the method can be used in control problems with particular reference to robot joint models, and then discuss how the method can be applied as a modelling formalism which enables the derivation of both control laws and Lagrangian equations. It is pointed out how the method used can be extended to impulsive problems, and how the behaviour of a nonlinear system can be determined from the associated decoupled and linearized counterparts. A short discussion of medical applications of the decoupling method closes the paper. A list of over 160 references contains an account of the problems which may be solved by the method.