Learning and Control of Underactuated Mechanical System

Dear colleagues,

In the last few decades, there has been great theoretical and practical interest in learning and controlling underactuated mechanical systems. These systems are defined as underactuated because they have more joints than control actuators. Much of this interest is a consequence of the importance of such systems in applications. For example, underactuation may arise in free-flying space robots, underwater vehicles without base actuators, legged robots with passive joints, redundant robots with flexible components, and in many other practical applications. Furthermore, when one or more joints of a standard manipulator fail, it becomes an underactuated mechanism and needs a special control algorithm to continue operation; thus, the development of learning and control techniques for underactuated systems will increase the reliability and fault tolerance of current and future robots. Interest in studying underactuated mechanical systems is also motivated by their role as a class of strongly nonlinear systems where complex internal dynamics, nonholonomic behavior, and lack of feedback linearizability are often exhibited. Traditional nonlinear control methods are insufficient in these cases, and new approaches must be developed. This Special Issue aims to present advances in both learning and control of underactuated mechanical systems and the use of underactuated systems in application domains.

Prof. Dr. Chunyi Su
Prof. Dr. Xuzhi Lai
Guest Editors

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