The position/force tracking control of Lagrangian mechanical systems with classical nonholonomic constraints is addressed in this paper. The main feature of this paper is that 1) control strategy is developed at the dynamic level and can deal with model uncertainties in the mechanical systems; 2) the proposed control law ensures the desired trajectory tracking of the configuration state of the closed-loop system; 3) the tracking error of constraint force is bounded with a controllable bound; and 4) a global asymptotic stability result is obtained in the Lyapunov sense. A detailed numerical example is presented to illustrate the developed method.

We have proposed a digital control method of space robot manipulators using the transpose of a generalized Jacobian matrix. The trajectory of the end-effector, however, is generally curved, because a desired trajectory is not defined in the control method. Furthermore, the method is based on the supposition that all physical parameters of the robot manipulator are known; therefore, if the end-effector captures an unknown mass object, the physical parameters are changed, and the control performance gets worse. In the paper, setting a desired trajectory and parameter identification are applied to the control method so as to overcome the drawbacks. Computer simulation, where a 3 DOF planar manipulator mounted on a free-floating robot base is selected, is performed. The simulation result demonstrates the effectiveness of the combination of setting the desired trajectory and parameter identification.

This paper deals with an adaptive resolved motion rate control (RMRC) method for a cooperative manipulation of a floating object by two free-based space robots with manipulators. Discussions as for the adaptive estimation are done on the divided generalized Jacobi matrices, which can be derived by system partition of the whole robot system. The method proposed here has an advantage that control algorithm of each robot is same even if a number of robots increases. The validity of the method was successfully confirmed by computer simulation.

This paper deals with a digital adaptive control for a manipulator mounted on a space robot. Most control methods are based on the supposition that all physical parameters of the space robot are known. However, if the end-effector catches an unknown object, the physical parameters of the robot are changed. Furthermore, joint actuators of a manipulator generally have input constraints. Even though the end-effector does not catch any objects, if the inputs of the actuators become saturated, the control performance gets worse. In this paper, we propose a digital adaptive control method for a manipulator having input constraints. Experimental results from a Space Manipulator Robot Testbed demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Deals with the simultaneous control of 2 DOF manipulator and antenna mounted on free-flying robot, which can move only on 2-dimensional plane. An extended generalized Jacobian matrix is defined for this robot. On the basis of this matrix and the resolved motion rate control, simultaneous control method is proposed. Computer simulations show the usefulness of the proposed control method.>