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Nonholonomic systems are, so to speak, mechanical systems with a prescribed restriction on the velocities. A virtual nonholonomic constraint is a controlled invariant distribution associated with an affine connection mechanical control system. A Riemannian homogeneous space is, a Riemannian manifold that looks the same everywhere, as you move through it by the action of a Lie group. These Riemannian manifolds are not necessarily Lie groups themselves, but nonetheless possess certain symmetries and invariances that allow for similar results to be obtained. In this work, we introduce the notion of virtual constraint on Riemannian homogeneous spaces in a geometric framework which is a generalization of the classical controlled invariant distribution setting and we show the existence and uniqueness of a control law preserving the invariant distribution. Moreover we characterize the closed-loop dynamics obtained using the unique control law in terms of an affine connection. We illustrate the theory with new examples of nonholonomic control systems inspired by robotics applications.

In this paper, we give sufficient conditions for and deduce a control law under which a mechanical control system converges exponentially fast to a virtual linear nonholonomic constraint that is control invariant via the same feedback control. Virtual constraints are relations imposed on a control system that become invariant via feedback control, as opposed to physical constraints acting on the system. Virtual nonholonomic constraints, similarly to mechanical nonholonomic constraints, are a class of virtual constraints that depend on velocities rather than only on the configurations of the system.

In this paper, we investigate the reduction process of a contact Lagrangian system whose Lagrangian is invariant under a group of symmetries. We give explicit coordinate expressions of the resulting reduced differential equations, the so-called Lagrange-Poincare-Herglotz equations. Our framework relied on the associated Herglotz vector field and its projected vector field, and the use of well-chosen quasi-velocities. Some examples are also discussed., Comment: 31 pages

In this paper we compare two numerical methods to integrate Riemannian cubic polynomials on the Stiefel manifold $\textbf{St}_{n,k}$. The first one is the adjusted de Casteljau algorithm, and the second one is a symplectic integrator constructed through discretization maps. In particular, we choose the cases of $n=3$ together with $k=1$ and $k=2$. The first case is diffeomorphic to the sphere and the quasi-geodesics appearing in the adjusted de Casteljau algorithm are actually geodesics. The second case is an example where we have a pure quasi-geodesic different from a geodesic. We provide a numerical comparison of both methods and discuss the obtained results to highlight the benefits of each method., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures

Hybrid systems are dynamical systems with continuous-time and discrete-time components in their dynamics. When hybrid systems are defined on a principal bundle we are able to define two classes of impacts for the discrete-time transition of the dynamics: interior impacts and exterior impacts. In this paper we define hybrid systems on principal bundles, study the underlying geometry on the switching surface where impacts occur and we find conditions for which both exterior and interior impacts are preserved by the mechanical connection induced in the principal bundle., Comment: 6 pages. To be presented at a conference. Comments welcome

This paper studies the reduction by symmetry of variational problems on Lie groups and Riemannian homogeneous spaces. We derive the reduced equations of motion in the case of Lie groups endowed with a left-invariant metric, and on Lie groups that admits a bi-invariant metric. We repeated this analysis for Riemannian homogeneous spaces, where we derive the reduced equations by considering an alternative variational problem written in terms of a connection on the horizontal bundle of the underlying Lie group. We study also the case that the underlying Lie group admits a bi-invariant metric, and consider the special case that the homogeneous space is in fact a Riemannian symmetric space. These ideas are applied to geodesics for a rigid body on $SO(3)$ to derive geodesic equations on the dual of its Lie algebra (a vector space), the heavy-top in $SE(3)$ to derive reduced equations of motion on the unit sphere $S^2$, geodesics on $S^2$ as a Riemannian symmetric space endowed with a bi-invariant metric and optimal control problems for applications to robotic manipulators., Comment: 33 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2207.13574

A hybrid system is a system whose dynamics are controlled by a mixture of both continuous and discrete transitions. The integrability of Hamiltonian systems is often identified with complete integrability or Liouville integrability, that is, the existence of as many independent integrals of motion in involution as the dimension of the phase space. Under certain regularity conditions, Liouville-Arnold theorem states that the invariant geometric structure associated with Liouville integrability is a fibration by Lagrangian tori, on which motions are linear. In this paper, we study an extension of the Liouville-Arnold theorem for hybrid systems whose continuous dynamics is given by a Hamiltonian vector field and we state conditions on the impact map and the switching surface under which a hybrid Hamiltonian system is, in a certain sense, completely integrable., Comment: 6 pages, preprint submitted to a conference, comments are welcome

This paper studies nonsmooth variational problems on principal bundles for nonholonomic systems with collisions taking place in the boundary of the manifold configuration space of the nonholonopmic system. In particular, we first extended to a nonsmooth context appropriate for collisions the variational principle for nonholonomic implicit Lagrangian systems, to obtain implicit Lagrange--d'Alembert--Pontryagin equations for nonholonomic systems with collisions, and after introducing the notion of connection on a principal bundle we consider Lagrange--Poincar\'e--Pointryagin reduction by symmetries for systems with collisions., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2311.02614

In this paper, variational techniques are used to analyze the dynamics of nonholonomic mechanical systems with impacts. Implicit nonholonomic smooth Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems are extended to a nonsmooth context appropriate for collisions. In particular, we provide a variational formulation for implicit nonholonomic mechanical systems with collisions, for those collisions that preserve energy and momentum at the impact. Lastly, the theoretical results are illustrated by examining the example of a rolling disk hitting a wall.

It has been shown in previous works that an optimal control formulation for an incompressible ideal fluid flow yields Euler's fluid equations. In this paper we consider the modified Euler's equations by adding a potential function playing the role of a barrier function in the corresponding optimal control problem with the motivation of studying obstacle avoidance in the motion of fluid particles for incompressible ideal flows of an inviscid fluid From the physical point of view, imposing an artificial potential in the fluid context is equivalent to generating a desired pressure. Simulation results for the obstacle avoidance task are provided., Comment: 6 pages, conference

In this work, we study the reduction by a Lie group of symmetries of variational collision avoidance probelms of multiple agents evolving on a Riemannian manifold and derive necessary conditions for the reduced extremals. The problem consists of finding non-intersecting trajectories of a given number of agents, among a set of admissible curves, to reach a specified configuration, based on minimizing an energy functional that depends on the velocity, covariant acceleration and an artificial potential function used to prevent collision among the agents., Comment: 7 pages, 8th IFAC Workshop on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Methods for Nonlinear Control, LHMNC 2024. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2310.18057, arXiv:2207.13574

This paper studies sufficient conditions in a variational obstacle avoidance problem on complete Riemannian manifolds. That is, we minimize an action functional, among a set of admissible curves, which depends on an artificial potential function used to avoid obstacles. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions under which the resulting critical points, the so-called modified Riemannian cubics, are local minimizers. We then study the theory of reduction by symmetries of sufficient conditions for optimality in variational obstacle avoidance problems on Lie groups endowed with a left-invariant metric. This amounts to left-translating the Bi-Jacobi fields described to the Lie algebra, and studying the corresponding bi-conjugate points. New conditions are provided in terms of the invertibility of a certain matrix., Comment: 9 pages, 8th IFAC Workshop on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Methods for Nonlinear Control. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2207.13574

Virtual constraints are relations imposed on a control system that become invariant via feedback control, as opposed to physical constraints acting on the system. Nonholonomic systems are mechanical systems with non-integrable constraints on the velocities. In this work, we introduce the notion of virtual nonlinear nonholonomic constraints in a geometric framework which is a controlled invariant submanifold and we show the existence and uniqueness of a control law preserving this submanifold. We illustrate the theory with various examples and present simulation results for an application., Comment: 8 pages

In this paper, we introduce a geometric description of contact Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems on Lie algebroids in the framework of contact geometry, using the theory of prolongations. We discuss the relation between Lagrangian and Hamiltonian settings through a convenient notion of Legendre transformation. We also discuss the Hamilton-Jacobi problem in this framework and introduce the notion of a Legendrian Lie subalgebroid of a contact Lie algebroid., Comment: 36 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2204.11537 by other authors

We study the dynamics of contact mechanical systems on Lie groups that are invariant under a Lie group action. Analogously to standard mechanical systems on Lie groups, existing symmetries allow for reducing the number of equations. Thus, we obtain Euler-Poincar\'e-Herglotz equations on the extended reduced phase space $\mathfrak{g}\times \R$ associated with the extended phase space $TG\times \R$, where the configuration manifold $G$ is a Lie group and $\mathfrak{g}$ its Lie algebra. Furthermore, we obtain the Hamiltonian counterpart of these equations by studying the underlying Jacobi structure. Finally, we extend the reduction process to the case of symmetry-breaking systems which are invariant under a Lie subgroup of symmetries., Comment: 38 pages

We extend the Jacobi structure from $TQ\times \mathbb{R}$ and $T^{*}Q \times \mathbb{R}$ to $A\times \mathbb{R}$ and $A^{*}\times \mathbb{R}$, respectively, where $A$ is a Lie algebroid and $A^{*}$ carries the associated Poisson structure. We see that $A^*\times \mathbb{R}$ possesses a natural Jacobi structure from where we are able to model dissipative mechanical systems, generalizing previous models on $TQ\times \mathbb{R}$ and $\mathfrak{g}\times \mathbb{R}$., Comment: 16 pages

In this paper we derive Hamel equations for the motion of nonholonomic systems subject to inequality constraints in quasivelocities. As examples, the vertical rolling disk hitting a wall and the Chaplygin sleigh with a knife edge constraint hitting a circular table are shown to illustrate the theoretical results., Comment: 7 pages

Retractions maps are used to define a discretization of the tangent bundle of the configuration manifold as two copies of the configuration manifold where the dynamics take place. Such discretization maps can be conveniently lifted to a higher-order tangent bundle to construct geometric integrators for the higher-order Euler-Lagrange equations. Given a cost function, an optimal control problem for fully actuated mechanical systems can be understood as a higher-order variational problem. In this paper we introduce the notion of a higher-order discretization map associated with a retraction map to construct geometric integrators for the optimal control of mechanical systems. In particular, we study applications to path planning for obstacle avoidance of a planar rigid body., Comment: 8 pages

A Hamiltonian system is completely integrable (in the sense of Liouville) if there exist as many independent integrals of motion in involution as the dimension of the configuration space. Under certain regularity conditions, Liouville-Arnold theorem states that the invariant geometric structure associated with Liouville integrability is a fibration by Lagrangian tori (or, more generally, Abelian groups), on which the motion is linear. In this paper, a Liouville-Arnold theorem for contact Hamiltonian systems is proven. In particular, it is shown that, given a $(2n+1)$-dimensional completely integrable contact system, one can construct a foliation by $(n+1)$-dimensional Abelian groups and induce action-angle coordinates in which the equations of motion are linearized. One important novelty with respect to previous attempts is that the foliation consists of $(n+1)$-dimensional coisotropic submanifolds given by the preimages of rays by the functions in involution. In order to prove the theorem, we first develop a version of Liouville-Arnold theorem for homogeneous functions in exact symplectic manifolds (which is of independent interest), and then apply symplectization to obtain the contact case., Comment: 30 pages. Substantial changes have been made on the proof of Theorem 4 and an example has been added. Preprint submitted to a journal. Comments are welcome!

In this paper we derive the equations of motion for nonholonomic systems subject to inequality constraints, both, in continuous-time and discrete-time. The last is done by discretizing the continuous time-variational principle which defined the equations of motion for a nonholonomic system subject to inequality constraints. An example is show to illustrate the theoretical results.

Virtual constraints are relations imposed in a control system that become invariant via feedback, instead of real physical constraints acting on the system. Nonholonomic systems are mechanical systems with non-integrable constraints on the velocities. In this work, we introduce the notion of virtual affine nonholonomic constraints in a geometric framework. More precisely, it is a controlled invariant affine distribution associated with an affine connection mechanical control system. We show the existence and uniqueness of a control law defining a virtual affine nonholonomic constraint., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2207.01299

A hybrid system is a system whose dynamics is given by a mixture of both continuous and discrete transitions. In particular, these systems can be utilised to describe the dynamics of a mechanical system with impacts. Based on the approach by Clark, we develop a geometric Hamilton-Jacobi theory for forced and nonholonomic hybrid dynamical systems. We state the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi equations for these classes of systems and apply our results to analyze some examples., Comment: 31 pages, accepted for publication on Geometric Mechanics

Forced variational integrators are given by the discretization of the Lagrange-d'Alembert principle for systems subject to external forces, and have proved useful for numerical simulation studies of complex dynamical systems. In this paper we model a passive walker with foot slip by using techniques of geometric mechanics, and we construct forced variational integrators for the system. Moreover, we present a methodology for generating (locally) optimal control policies for simple hybrid holonomically constrained forced Lagrangian systems, based on discrete mechanics, applied to a controlled walker with foot slip in a trajectory tracking problem., Comment: 8 pages, preprint submitted to a conference. Comments are welcome!

In this paper we address the problem of identifying contracting systems among dynamical systems appearing in mechanics. First, we introduce a sufficient condition to identify contracting systems in a general Riemannian manifold. Then, we apply this technique to establish that a particular type of dissipative forced mechanical system is contracting, while stating immediate consequences of this fact for the stability of these systems. Finally, we use the previous results to study the stability of particular types of Contact and Nonholonomic systems.

In this paper, the theory of smooth action-dependent Lagrangian mechanics (also known as contact Lagrangians) is extended to a non-smooth context appropriate for collision problems. In particular, we develop a Herglotz variational principle for non-smooth action-dependent Lagrangians which leads to the preservation of energy and momentum at impacts. By defining appropriately a Legendre transform, we can obtain the Hamilton equations of motion for the corresponding non-smooth Hamiltonian system. We apply the result to a billiard problem in the presence of dissipation., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. Preprint submitted to a conference. Comments welcome!

This paper studies the reduction by symmetry of a variational obstacle avoidance problem. We derive the reduced necessary conditions in the case of Lie groups endowed with a left-invariant metric, and for its corresponding Riemannian homogeneous spaces by considering an alternative variational problem written in terms of a connection on the horizontal bundle of the Lie group. A number of special cases where the obstacle avoidance potential can be computed explicitly are studied in detail, and these ideas are applied to the obstacle avoidance task for a rigid body evolving on SO$(3)$ and for the unit sphere $S^2$., Comment: 29 pages

We study the reduction by symmetry for optimality conditions in optimal control problems of left-invariant affine multi-agent control systems, with partial symmetry breaking cost functions for continuous-time and discrete-time systems. We recast the optimal control problem as a constrained variational problem with a partial symmetry breaking Lagrangian and obtain the reduced optimality conditions from a reduced variational principle via symmetry reduction techniques in both settings, continuous-time, and discrete-time. We apply the results to a collision and obstacle avoidance problem for multiple vehicles evolving on $SE(2)$ in the presence of a static obstacle., Comment: 20 pages

We study the problem of periodic event-triggered control of interconnected port-Hamiltonian systems subject to time-varying delays in their communication. In particular, we design a threshold parameter for the event-triggering condition, a sampling period, and a maximum allowable delay such that interconnected port-Hamiltonian control systems with periodic event-triggering mechanism under a time-delayed communication are able to achieve asymptotically stable behaviour. Simulation results are presented to validate the theory.

Virtual constraints are invariant relations imposed on a control system via feedback as opposed to real physical constraints acting on the system. Nonholonomic systems are mechanical systems with non-integrable constraints on the velocities. In this work, we introduce the notion of virtual nonholonomic constraints in a geometric framework. More precisely, it is a controlled invariant distribution associated with an affine connection mechanical control system. We demonstrate the existence and uniqueness of a control law defining a virtual nonholonomic constraint and we characterize the trajectories of the closed-loop system as solutions of a mechanical system associated with an induced constrained connection. Moreover, we characterize the dynamics for nonholonomic systems in terms of virtual nonholonomic constraints, i.e., we characterize when can we obtain nonholonomic dynamics from virtual nonholonomic constraints., Comment: 12 pages

We describe geometrically contact Lagrangian systems under impulsive forces and constraints, as well as instantaneous nonholonomic constraints which are not uniform along the configuration space. In both situations, the vector field describing the dynamics of a contact Lagrangian system is determined by defining projectors to evaluate the constraints by using a Riemannian metric. In particular, we introduce the Herglotz equations for contact Lagrangian systems subject to instantaneous nonholonomic constraints. Moreover, we provide a Carnot-type theorem for contact Lagrangian systems subject to impulsive forces and constraints, which characterizes the changes of energy due to contact-type dissipation and impulsive forces. We illustrate the applicability of the method with practical examples, in particular, a rolling cylinder on a springily surface and a rolling sphere on a non-uniform surface, both with dissipation., Comment: 23 pages

In this paper we study reduction by symmetry for optimality conditions in optimal control problems of left-invariant affine multi-agent control systems, with partial symmetry breaking cost functions. Our approach emphasizes the role of variational principles. Specifically, we recast the optimal control problem as a constrained variational problem with a partial symmetry breaking Hamiltonian and obtain the reduced optimality conditions from a reduced variational principle via Pontryagin Maximum Principle. We apply the results to a collision avoidance problem for multiple unicycles in the presence of an obstacle.

In this paper we present a learning-based tracking controller based on Gaussian processes (GP) for a fault-tolerant hexarotor in a recovery maneuver. In particular, to estimate certain uncertainties that appear in a hexacopter vehicle with the ability to reconfigure its rotors to compensate for failures. The rotors reconfiguration introduces disturbances that make the dynamic model of the vehicle differ from the nominal model. The control algorithm is designed to learn and compensate the amount of modeling uncertainties after a failure in the control allocation reconfiguration by using GP as a learning-based model for the predictions. In particular the presented approach guarantees a probabilistic bounded tracking error with high probability. The performance of the learning-based fault-tolerant controller is evaluated through experimental tests with an hexarotor UAV.

We introduce variational problems on Riemannian manifolds with constrained acceleration and derive necessary conditions for normal extremals in the constrained variational problem. The problem consists on minimizing a higher-order energy functional, among a set of admissible curves defined by a constraint on the covariant acceleration. In addition, we use this framework to address the elastic splines problem with obstacle avoidance in the presence of this type of contraints.

This paper discusses Routh reduction for simple hybrid forced mechanical systems. We give general conditions on whether it is possible to perform symmetry reduction for a simple hybrid Lagrangian system subject to non-conservative external forces, emphasizing the case of case of cyclic coordinates. We illustrate the applicability of the symmetry reduction procedure with an example and numerical simulations., Comment: Submitted. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2112.02573, arXiv:2003.07484, arXiv:2001.08941

Numerical methods that preserve geometric invariants of the system, such as energy, momentum or the symplectic form, are called geometric integrators. Variational integrators are an important class of geometric integrators. The general idea for those variational integrators is to discretize Hamilton's principle rather than the equations of motion in a way that preserves some of the invariants of the original system. In this paper we construct variational integrators with fixed time step for time-dependent Lagrangian systems modelling an important class of autonomous dissipative systems. These integrators are derived via a family of discrete Lagrangian functions each one for a fixed time-step. This allows to recover at each step on the set of discrete sequences the preservation properties of variational integrators for autonomous Lagrangian systems, such as symplecticity or backward error analysis for these systems. We also present a discrete Noether theorem for this class of systems. Applications of the results are shown for the problem of formation stabilization of multi-agent systems., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2010.00425

In this paper, an event-triggered control protocol is developed to investigate flocking control of Lagrangian systems, where event-triggering conditions are proposed to determine when the velocities of the agents are transmitted to their neighbours. In particular, the proposed controller is distributed, since it only depends on the available information of each agent on their own reference frame. In addition, we derive sufficient conditions to avoid Zeno behaviour. Numerical simulations are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed control law., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Flocking control of multi-agents system is challenging for agents with partially unknown dynamics. This paper proposes an online learning-based controller to stabilize flocking motion of double-integrator agents with additional unknown nonlinear dynamics by using Gaussian processes (GP). Agents interaction is described by a time-invariant infinitesimally minimally rigid undirected graph. We provide a decentralized control law that exponentially stabilizes the motion of the agents and captures Reynolds boids motion for swarms by using GPs as an online learning-based oracle for the prediction of the unknown dynamics. In particular the presented approach guarantees a probabilistic bounded tracking error with high probability.

This paper discusses reduction by symmetries for autonomous and non-autonomous forced mechanical systems with inelastic collisions. In particular, we introduce the notion of generalized hybrid momentum map and hybrid constants of the motion to give general conditions on whether it is possible to perform symmetry reduction for Hamiltonian and Lagrangian systems subject to non-conservative external forces and non-elastic impacts, as well as its extension to time-dependent mechanical systems subject to time-dependent external forces and time-dependent inelastic collisions. We illustrate the applicability of the method with examples and numerical simulations., Comment: Preprint submitted to a Journal. Comments Welcome!

Groups of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly utilized in transportation task as the combined strength allows to increase the maximum payload. However, the resulting mechanical coupling of the UAVs impose new challenges in terms of the tracking control. Thus, we design a geometric trajectory tracking controller for the cooperative task of four quadrotor UAVs carrying and transporting a rigid body, which is attached to the quadrotors via inflexible elastic cables. The elasticity of the cables together with techniques of singular perturbation allows a reduction in the model to that of a similar model with inelastic cables. In this reduced model, we design a controller such that the position and attitude of the load exponentially converges to a given desired trajectory. We then show that this result leads to an uniformly converging tracking error for the original elastic model under some assumptions. Furthermore, under the presence of unstructured disturbances on the system, we show that the error is ultimately bounded with an arbitrarily small bound. Finally, a simulation illustrates the theoretical results., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2104.06155

We study variational obstacle avoidance problems on complete Riemannian manifolds and apply the results to the construction of piecewise smooth curves interpolating a set of knot points in systems with impulse effects. We derive the dynamical equations for extrema in the variational problem, and show the existence of minimizers by using lower-continuity arguments for weak convergence on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert manifold. We then provide conditions under which it is possible to ensure that the extrema will safely avoid a given obstacle within some desired tolerance., Comment: !0 pages, 1 figure. Accepted to the conference proceedings of the 7th IFAC Workshop on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Methods for Nonlinear Control (LHMNC21) at the Technical University of Berlin. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2104.04285

This paper presents the design of a geometric trajectory tracking controller for the cooperative task of two quadrotor UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) carrying and transporting a rigid bar, which is attached to the quadrotors via inflexible elastic cables. The elasticity of the cables together with techniques of singular perturbation allows a reduction in the model to that of a similar model with inelastic cables. In this reduced model, we design a controller such that the rod exponentially tracks a given desired trajectory for its position and attitude, under some assumptions on initial error. We then show that exponential tracking in the reduced model corresponds to exponential tracking of the original elastic model. We also show that the previously defined control scheme provides uniform ultimate boundedness in the presence of unstructured bounded disturbances., Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures

This paper studies variational collision avoidance problems for multi-agents systems on complete Riemannian manifolds. That is, we minimize an energy functional, among a set of admissible curves, which depends on an artificial potential function used to avoid collision between the agents. We show the global existence of minimizers to the variational problem and we provide conditions under which it is possible to ensure that agents will avoid collision within some desired tolerance. We also study the problem where trajectories are constrained to have uniform bounds on the derivatives, and derive alternate safety conditions for collision avoidance in terms of these bounds - even in the case where the artificial potential is not sufficiently regular to ensure existence of global minimizers., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures

Formation control algorithms for multi-agent systems have gained much attention in the recent years due to the increasing amount of mobile and aerial robotic swarms. The design of safe controllers for these vehicles is a substantial aspect for an increasing range of application domains. However, parts of the vehicle's dynamics and external disturbances are often unknown or very time-consuming to model. To overcome this issue, we present a safe formation control law for multiagent systems based on double integrator dynamics by using Gaussian Processes for an online learning of the unknown dynamics. The presented approach guarantees a bounded error to desired formations with high probability, where the bound is explicitly given. A numerical example highlights the effectiveness of the learning-based formation control law., Comment: Preprint submitted to IEEE CDC 2021

We design a reduced attitude controller for reorienting the spin axis of a gyroscope in a geometric control framework. The proposed controller preserves the inherent gyroscopic stability associated with a spinning axis-symmetric rigid body. The equations of motion are derived in two frames: a non-spinning frame to show the gyroscopic stability, and a body-fixed spinning frame for deriving the controller. The proposed controller is designed such that it retains the gyroscopic stability structure in the closed loop and renders the desired equilibrium almost-globally asymptotically stable. Due to the time-critical nature of the control input, in particular its sensitivity with respect to delays/neglected dynamics, the controller is extended to incorporate the effect of actuator dynamics for practical implementation. Thereafter, a comparison in performance is shown between the proposed controller and a conventional reduced attitude geometric controller with numerical simulation. The controller is validated experimentally on a spinning tricopter.

We study the reduction of degrees of freedom for the equations that determine necessary optimality conditions for extrema in an optimal control problem for a multiagent system by exploiting the physical symmetries of agents, where the kinematics of each agent is given by a left-invariant control system. Reduced optimality conditions are obtained using techniques from variational calculus and Lagrangian mechanics. A Hamiltonian formalism is also studied, where the problem is explored through an application of Pontryagin's maximum principle for left-invariant systems, and the optimality conditions are obtained as integral curves of a reduced Hamiltonian vector field. We apply the results to an energy-minimum control problem for multiple unicycles., Comment: IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol 65 (11), 4973-4980. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1802.01224

Formation control of autonomous agents can be seen as a physical system of individuals interacting with local potentials, and whose evolution can be described by a Lagrangian function. In this paper, we construct and implement forced variational integrators for the formation control of autonomous agents modeled by double integrators. In particular, we provide an accurate numerical integrator with a lower computational cost than traditional solutions. We find error estimations for the rate of the energy dissipated along with the agents' motion to achieve desired formations. Consequently, this permits to provide sufficient conditions on the simulation's time step for the convergence of discrete formation control systems such as the consensus problem in discrete systems. We present practical applications such as the rapid estimation of regions of attraction to desired shapes in distance-based formation control., Comment: Submitted to IEEE. Transactions on Control of Network Systems. 12 pages