Sensitivity Reduction of Constraint Forces and Position Control for Mechanical Descriptor Systems

Abstract

This paper deals with the position and force control for mechanical systems with holonomic constraints. Our concern is the design of a feedback controller such that the closed-loop system has a satisfactory transient response and is less sensitive to various types of disturbances. Using an appropriate transformation, the constrained system is converted into an unconstrained system of lower order. Then, an H∞ , control problem involving the reduced system is formulated. In the case of state feedback, a systematic design procedure for solving the problem is presented, where the key step is the solution of an algebraic Riccati equation. An example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.