Energy shaping control of a class of underactuated mechanical systems with high-order actuator dynamics

In this work we present some new results on energy shaping control for underactuated mechanical systems with high-order actuator dynamics. To this end, we propose an extension of the Interconnection and damping assignment Passivity based control methodology to account for actuator dynamics. This brings the following new results: i) a potential and kinetic energy shaping and damping assignment procedure that yields two alternative controllers; ii) a potential energy shaping and damping assignment procedure for a narrower class of underactuated mechanical systems. The proposed approach is illustrated with numerical simulations on three examples: an Acrobot system with a series elastic actuator; a soft continuum manipulator actuated by electroactive polymers; a two-mass-spring system actuated by a DC motor. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of European Control Association. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )