This paper considers a problem of nonholonomic motion planning. A practical paradigm for planning and stabilization of motion in a class of multivariate nonlinear (nonholonomic) systems is presented and applied to a planar free-floating manipulator system. The controller architecture designed in the paper is based on the radial basis function approximation of an optimal control program for any desired motion. This architecture also incorporates a sampled-data feedback stabilization algorithm. The proposed control technique overcomes certain problems associated with other control approaches available for nonholonomic systems. The presented simulation results reveal a promising potential of the proposed control paradigm. This paradigm can be extended to a broader class of nonlinear control problems.

In this paper, we present a technique for planning and stabilization of motion in a class of multivariable nonlinear (nonholonomic) systems, and apply this technique to the free-flying manipulators. The controller architecture designed in the paper is based on the radial basis function (RBF) network approximation of an optimal control program for any desired motion. An additional control level for sampled feedback compensation of the approximation errors is also proposed. The presented RBF-based control technique overcomes certain problems associated with other control approaches recently proposed for nonholonomic systems. An example and numerical simulations are provided for illustration.>

In this paper, a new design of smooth dynamic feedback is proposed that compensates for kinematic drift in motion of a nonholonomic system. The technique is applied to a space-based free-flying manipulator in order to compensate for attitude drift. The proposed drift compensation technique is based on our design of the smooth time-variant dynamic feedback for stabilization of a nonholonomic system. We also present a classification and analysis of various cases of the kinematic drift. Example and numerical simulation are provided for illustration.>

A method for robot program synthesis is developed. The conceptual graph-based approach is proposed for the development of a robot programming support system. The system provides a means toward automated conversion of a user's request expressed in natural language to the appropriate conceptual model of the required task. This approximate model of the dynamically changing real world of robotic assembly incorporates the information necessary for understanding, planning, and sensory-guided performance of the required robotic task. The overall framework of the system is defined, and the authors present the first phase of an assembly program synthesis: request specification, planning of valid assembly sequences, and required resources determination. A case study illustrates the approach on a large family of multi-axisymmetric components.>