Nonlinear Control of Vehicles and Robots develops a unified approach to the dynamic modeling of robots in terrestrial, aerial and marine environments. The main classes of nonlinear systems and stability methods are summarized and basic nonlinear control methods, useful in manipulator and vehicle control, are presented. Formation control of ground robots and ships is discussed. The book also deals with the modeling and control of robotic systems in the presence of non-smooth nonlinearities. Robust adaptive tracking control of robotic systems with unknown payload and friction in the presence of uncertainties is treated. Theoretical and practical aspects of the control algorithms under discussion are detailed. Examples are included throughout the book allowing the reader to apply the control and modeling techniques in their own research and development work. Some of these examples demonstrate state estimation based on the use of advanced sensors as part of the control system.

Nonlinear Control of Robots and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: An Integrated Approach presents control and regulation methods that rely upon feedback linearization techniques. Both robot manipulators and UAVs employ operating regimes with large magnitudes of state and control variables, making such an approach vital for their control systems design. Numerous application examples are included to facilitate the art of nonlinear control system design, for both robotic systems and UAVs, in a single unified framework. MATLAB® and Simulink® are integrated to demonstrate the importance of computational methods and systems simulation in this process.

This monograph addresses problems of: • nonlinear control, estimation and filtering for robotic manipulators (multi-degree-of freedom rigid-link robots, flexible-link robots, underactuated, redundant and cooperating manipulators and closed-chain robotic mechanisms); and• nonlinear control, estimation and filtering for autonomous robotic vehicles operating on the ground, in the air, and on and under water, independently and in cooperating groups. The book is a thorough treatment of the entire range of applications of robotic manipulators and autonomous vehicles. The nonlinear control and estimation methods it develops can be used generically, being suitable for a wide range of robotic systems. Such methods can improve robustness, precision and fault-tolerance in robotic manipulators and vehicles at the same time as enabling the reliable functioning of these systems under variable conditions, model uncertainty and external perturbations.

Nonlinear Control of Robots and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: An Integrated Approach presents control and regulation methods that rely upon feedback linearization techniques. Both robot manipulators and UAVs employ operating regimes with large magnitudes of state and control variables, making such an approach vital for their control systems design. Numerous application examples are included to facilitate the art of nonlinear control system design, for both robotic systems and UAVs, in a single unified framework. MATLAB® and Simulink® are integrated to demonstrate the importance of computational methods and systems simulation in this process.

This book belongs to the field of intelligent vehicle control, which is dedicated to the research of nonlinear control problems of intelligent vehicle chassis-by-wire systems. Through the nonlinear stability control of the steer-by-wire system and the consistency optimization control of the brake-by-wire system, the performance of the vehicle subsystem is improved. Then, the decoupling control of the nonlinear inverse system is used to realize the decoupling of the chassis-by-wire system. Finally, this book further adopts nonlinear rollover prevention integrated control to improve the rollover prevention performance of the vehicle.