Reduced order model and robust control architecture for mechanical systems with nonholonomic Pfaffian constraints

The position/force control of mechanical systems subject to a set of Pfaffian constraints is addressed in this paper. A reduced order dynamical description of such nonholonomic mechanical systems, including the constraints, is developed. Some properties of the dynamic model are then exploited to facilitate the controller design. Based on the theory of guaranteed stability of uncertain systems, a robust control algorithms is derived, guaranteeing the uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking errors. A detailed numerical example is presented to illustrate the developed method