Search

We propose a constructive control design for stabilization of non-periodic trajectories of underactuated mechanical systems. An important example of such a system is an underactuated "dynamic walking" biped robot walking over rough terrain. The proposed technique is to compute a transverse linearization about the desired motion: a linear impulsive system which locally represents dynamics about a target trajectory. This system is then exponentially stabilized using a modified receding-horizon control design. The proposed method is experimentally verified using a compass-gait walker: a two-degree-of-freedom biped with hip actuation but pointed stilt-like feet. The technique is, however, very general and can be applied to higher degree-of-freedom robots over arbitrary terrain and other impulsive mechanical systems. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.

© 2017 Finding separable certificates of stability is important for tractability of analysis methods for large-scale networked systems. In this paper we consider the question of when a nonlinear system which is contracting, i.e. all solutions are exponentially stable, can have that property verified by a separable metric. Making use of recent results in the theory of positive linear systems and separable Lyapunov functions, we prove several new results showing when this is possible, and discuss the application of to nonlinear distributed control design via convex optimization.

Estimation of nonlinear dynamic models from data poses many challenges, including model instability and nonconvexity of long-term simulation fidelity. Recently Lagrangian relaxation has been proposed as a method to approximate simulation fidelity and guarantee stability via semidefinite programming (SDP); however, the resulting SDPs have large dimension, limiting their utility in practical problems. In this paper, we develop a path-following interior-point algorithm that takes advantage of special structure in the problem and reduces computational complexity from cubic to linear growth with the length of the dataset. The new algorithm enables empirical comparisons to established methods including nonlinear autoregressive models with exogenous inputs, and we demonstrate superior generalization to new data. We also explore the "regularizing" effect of stability constraints as an alternative to regressor subset selection.

Equation error, also known as one-step-ahead prediction error, is a common quality-of-fit metric in dynamical system identification and learning. In this letter, we use Lagrangian relaxation to construct a convex upper bound on equation error that can be optimized over a convex set of nonlinear models that are guaranteed to be contracting, a strong form of nonlinear stability. We provide theoretical results on the tightness of the relaxation, and show that the method compares favorably to established methods on a variety of case studies.

Stability of recurrent models is closely linked with trainability, generalizability and in some applications, safety. Methods that train stable recurrent neural networks, however, do so at a significant cost to expressibility. We propose an implicit model structure that allows for a convex parametrization of stable models using contraction analysis of non-linear systems. Using these stability conditions we propose a new approach to model initialization and then provide a number of empirical results comparing the performance of our proposed model set to previous stable RNNs and vanilla RNNs. By carefully controlling stability in the model, we observe a significant increase in the speed of training and model performance., Comment: Conference submission

Gain-scheduled control based on linear parameter-varying (LPV) models derived from local linearizations is a widespread nonlinear technique for tracking time-varying setpoints. Recently, a nonlinear control scheme based on Control Contraction Metrics (CCMs) has been developed to track arbitrary admissible trajectories. This paper presents a comparison study of these two approaches. We show that the CCM based approach is an extended gain-scheduled control scheme which achieves global reference-independent stability and performance through an exact control realization which integrates a series of local LPV controllers on a particular path between the current and reference states., Comment: IFAC LPVS 2019

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) path planning algorithms often assume a knowledge reward function or priority map, indicating the most important areas to visit. In this paper we propose a method to create priority maps for monitoring or intervention of dynamic spreading processes such as wildfires. The presented optimization framework utilizes the properties of positive systems, in particular the separable structure of value (cost-to-go) functions, to provide scalable algorithms for surveillance and intervention. We present results obtained for a 16 and 1000 node example and convey how the priority map responds to changes in the dynamics of the system. The larger example of 1000 nodes, representing a fictional landscape, shows how the method can integrate bushfire spreading dynamics, landscape and wind conditions. Finally, we give an example of combining the proposed method with a travelling salesman problem for UAV path planning for wildfire intervention., Comment: Accepted for ICRA 2019