Novel concepts for analysis and design of nonlinear controllers and compensators of flexible and chained mechanical systems

Project will be devoted to the investigation of novel concepts for the analysis and design of
nonlinear controllers of flexible and chained mechanical systems to either compensate or
control efficiently their oscillatory modes and limit cycles. The compensation of the oscillatory
modes is motivated by the flexible robotic and crane applications, where standard linear
methods fail either due to the strongly nonlinear dynamics or due to the limited controllability.
Limit cycles control then aims to multiply chained and actuated robotic systems. Special
attention is paid to the robotic walking, optimized with respect to the injected energy. Both these
application directions are intrinsically related: while the former requires removing energy from
the system during the periodic cycle, the latter requires the energy injection to maintain the
stable cyclic movement. These mutually mirrored problems are analyzed and implemented
using the nonlinear system transformations, virtual constraints, multi-dimensional system
analysis, nonlinear Lyapunov redesign and theory of time delay systems.