Related papers: Symmetry Reduction, Contact Geometry and Nonlinear…

We study a trajectory-planning problem whose solution path evolves by means of a Lie group action and passes near a designated set of target positions at particular times. This is a higher-order variational problem in optimal control,…

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…

The general objective of this Ph.D. thesis is to study the dynamics and control of rigid and flexible spacecraft supported by a high-fidelity numerical simulation environment. The demand for greater attitude pointing precision, attitude…

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,…

Motion planning and control are two core components of the robotic systems autonomy stack. The standard approach to combine these methodologies comprises an offline/open-loop stage, planning, that designs a feasible and safe trajectory to…

This work introduces two multi-level control strategies to address the problem of guidance and control of underwater vehicles. An outer-loop path-following algorithm and an outer-loop trajectory tracking algorithm are presented. Both…

The ability to robustly and efficiently control the dynamics of nonlinear systems lies at the heart of many current technological challenges, ranging from drug delivery systems to ensuring flight safety. Most such scenarios are too complex…

To be applicable to real world scenarios trajectory planning schemes for mobile autonomous systems must be able to efficiently deal with obstacles in the area of operation. In the context of optimization based trajectory planning and…

Many robotic systems are underactuated, meaning not all degrees of freedom can be directly controlled due to lack of actuators, input constraints, or state-dependent actuation. This property, compounded by modeling uncertainties and…

We present a geometric neural network-based tracking controller for systems evolving on matrix Lie groups under unknown dynamics, actuator faults, and bounded disturbances. Leveraging the left-invariance of the tangent bundle of matrix Lie…

Lyapunov stability theory is the bedrock of direct adaptive control. Fundamentally, Lyapunov stability requires constructing a distance-like function which must decrease with time to ensure stability. Feedback linearization, backstepping,…

This paper develops the theory of Dirac reduction by symmetry for nonholonomic systems on Lie groups with broken symmetry. The reduction is carried out for the Dirac structures, as well as for the associated Lagrange-Dirac and…

We investigate the universality of multi-spin systems in architectures of various symmetries of coupling type and topology. Explicit reachability sets under symmetry constraints are provided. Thus for a given (possibly symmetric)…

This paper is concerned with a finite-horizon inverse control problem, which has the goal of reconstructing, from observations, the possibly non-convex and non-stationary cost driving the actions of an agent. In this context, we present a…

Model-free reinforcement learning is a promising approach for autonomously solving challenging robotics control problems, but faces exploration difficulty without information of the robot's kinematics and dynamics morphology. The…

Boundary feedback control design is studied for 1D hyperbolic systems with an in-domain disturbance and a boundary feedback controller under the effect of actuator saturation. Nonlinear semigroup theory is used to prove well-posedness of…

Structural symmetries of linear dynamical systems can be exploited for decoupling the dynamics and reducing the computational complexity of the controller implementation. However, in practical applications, inexact structural symmetries…

Contact planning is crucial in locomoting systems.Specifically, appropriate contact planning can enable versatile behaviors (e.g., sidewinding in limbless locomotors) and facilitate speed-dependent gait transitions (e.g., walk-trot-gallop…

Spacecraft relative motion planning is concerned with the design and execution of maneuvers relative to a nominal target. These types of maneuvers are frequently utilized in missions such as rendezvous and docking, satellite inspection and…

Control of complex processes is a major goal of network analyses. Most approaches to control nonlinearly coupled systems require the network topology and/or network dynamics. Unfortunately, neither the full set of participating nodes nor…