# Exponential Stabilization of Driftless Nonlinear Control Systems

## Robert T. M'CloskeyPhD Dissertation, Caltech, Dec 1994

This dissertation lays the foundation for practical exponential stabilization of driftless control systems. Driftless systems have the form $$\dot x = X_1(x)u_1+\cdots +X_m(x)u_m, \quad x\in\real^n$$. Such systems arise when modeling mechanical systems with nonholonomic constraints. In engineering applications it is often required to maintain the mechanical system around a desired configuration. This task is treated as a stabilization problem where the desired configuration is made an asymptotically stable equilibrium point. The control design is carried out on an approximate system. The approximation process yields a nilpotent set of input vector fields which, in a special coordinate system, are homogeneous with respect to a non-standard dilation. Even though the approximation can be given a coordinate-free interpretation, the homogeneous structure is useful to exploit: the feedbacks are required to be homogeneous functions and thus preserve the homogeneous structure in the closed-loop system. The stability achieved is called {\em $\rho$-exponential stability}. The closed-loop system is stable and the equilibrium point is exponentially attractive. This extended notion of exponential stability is required since the feedback, and hence the closed-loop system, is not Lipschitz. However, it is shown that the convergence rate of a Lipschitz closed-loop driftless system cannot be bounded by an exponential envelope.

The synthesis methods generate feedbacks which are smooth on \rminus. The solutions of the closed-loop system are proven to be unique in this case. In addition, the control inputs for many driftless systems are velocities. For this class of systems it is more appropriate for the control law to specify actuator forces instead of velocities. We have extended the kinematic velocity controllers to controllers which command forces and still $\rho$-exponentially stabilize the system.

Perhaps the ultimate justification of the methods proposed in this thesis are the experimental results. The experiments demonstrate the superior convergence performance of the $\rho$-exponential stabilizers versus traditional smooth feedbacks. The experiments also highlight the importance of transformation conditioning in the feedbacks. Other design issues, such as scaling the measured states to eliminate hunting, are discussed. The methods in this thesis bring the practical control of strongly nonlinear systems one step closer.

CDS Technical Report (PDF, 1428K, 139 pages)