Global bifurcation analysis of a controlled underactuated mechanical system (Q2499461)

To investigate underactuated control problems is of great practical importance either because such problems naturally occur (e.g. dynamics of ships) or for the case of failure of an actuator. By an underactuated control problem one understands a system which has more degrees of freedom than independent control inputs. In this paper, bificuration theory is employed to classify different dynamical behaviors arising for a simple underactuated mechanical system subject to bounded controls. This system is an inertia wheel pendulum consisting of a simple pendulum with a rotating disk at the end. The system has two degrees of freedom, but the control action is restricted to a torque acting on the wheel. Further restricting the magnitude of the control action places an important obstacle to the design of a continuous controller capable of swinging-up and stabilize the pendulum at the inverted position: the arm only can reach that position by means of oscillations of increasing amplitude. The controller is derived from a simple nonlinear state-feedback law, followed by a saturating device that limits the maximum amplitude of the control action applied to the system. This bound gives birth to a rich dynamical behavior, including various bifurcations. The global dynamics is analyzed and it is found out that, when the control gains lie in a certain region in the parameter space, simultaneous stabilization of the upright position together with a large basin of attraction is obtained. Simulation results show that almost global stabilization of the system can be achieved. A well written interesting paper.