Title: Control for mechanical systems (8 pages)
Detail: Coleman-Ellis lecture, Department of Mathematics & Statistics,
Queen's University, 2001/11/07
The control of mechanical systems is a deceptively complicated matter. There
are many simple systems for which basic control theoretic tasks are
nontrivial. Some of these tasks are:
- is it possible to steer from point A to point B? (this is the
"controllability" problem);
- if yes to 1, how do we do it? (this is the "trajectory generation"
problem);
- can we design controls that render a desired state stable? (this is the
"stabilisation" problem);
- can we accomplish a certain task while minimising a cost function?
(this is an "optimal control" problem).
In the talk, these problems will be discussed in the context of a
couple of simple examples.
No online version avaliable (but check this out).
Andrew D. Lewis (andrew at mast.queensu.ca)