Differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) consist of mixed systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) coupled with linear or nonlinear equations. Such systems may be viewed as ODEs with integral curves lying in a manifold. DAEs appear frequently in applications such as classical mechanics and electrical circuits. This thesis concentrates on systems of index 2, originally index 3, and mixed index 2 and 3. Fast and efficient numerical solvers for DAEs are highly desirable for finding solutions. We focus primarily on the class of Gauss-Lobatto SPARK methods. However, we also introduce an extension to methods proposed by Murua for solving index 2 systems to systems of mixed index 2 and 3. An analysis of these methods is also presented in this thesis. We examine the existence and uniqueness of the proposed numerical solutions, the influence of perturbations, and the local error and global convergence of the methods. When applied to index 2 DAEs, SPARK methods are shown to be equivalent to a class of collocation type methods. When applied to originally index 3 and mixed index 2 and 3 DAEs, they are equivalent to a class of discontinuous collocation methods. Using these equivalences, (s,s)--Gauss-Lobatto SPARK methods can be shown to be superconvergent of order 2s. Symplectic SPARK methods applied to Hamiltonian systems with holonomic constraints preserve well the total energy of the system. This follows from a backward error analysis approach. SPARK methods and our proposed EMPRK methods are shown to be Lagrange-d'Alembert integrators. This thesis also presents some numerical results for Gauss-Lobatto SPARK and EMPRK methods. A few problems from mechanics are considered.

Courses in analytical mechanics for undergraduate students are often limited to treatment of holonomic constraints, which are constraints on coordinates. The concept of nonholonomic constraints, constraints on velocities, is usually only mentioned briefly and it is easy to get a wrongful idea of what they are and how to treat them. This text explains and compares the methods of deriving the Euler-Lagrange equations and the consequences when imposing different kinds of constraints. One way to properly treat both holonomic and nonholonomic constraints is given, pinpointing the difficulties and common errors. Along the way, the treatment in local coordinates is also put in more modern terms, in the language of differential geometry, which is the language most commonly used in modern texts on the subject.

In order to operate safely and naturally in human-centered environments, robots need to respond compliantly to force and contact interactions. While advanced robotic torsos and arms have been built that successfully achieve this, a somewhat neglected research area is the construction of compliant wheeled mobile bases. This thesis describes the mechatronics behind Trikey, a holonomic wheeled mobile base employing torque sensing at each of its three omni wheels so that it can detect and respond gracefully to force interactions. Trikey's mechanical design, kinematic and dynamic models, and control architecture are described, as well as simple experiments demonstrating compliant control. Trikey is designed to support a force-controlled humanoid upper body, and eventually, the two will be controlled together using whole-body control algorithms that utilize the external and internal dynamics of the entire system. / text

The Roobots are a robot soccer team which participated in the RoboCup small-sized robot league competition in the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, when they finished in fourth place. This thesis describes the design of the robots in the 2002 team. Design issues for mobile robots in the RoboCup small-sized robot league are reviewed. The design decisions are presented. Finally, some lessons learnt for system design and project management from the three years of competition are presented.

This master’s thesis describes equations of motion for dynamic model of nonholonomic constrained system, namely the trident robotic snakes. The model is studied in the form of Lagrange's equations and D’Alembert’s principle is applied. Actually this thesis is a continuation of the study going at VUT about the simulations of non-holonomic mechanisms, specifically robotic snakes. The kinematics model was well-examined in the work of of Byrtus, Roman and Vechetová, Jana. So here we provide equations of motion and address the motion planning problem regarding dynamics of the trident snake equipped with active joints through basic examples and propose a feedback linearization algorithm.

No / We show that the multidimensional Zeno effect combined with non-holonomic control allows one to efficiently protect quantum systems from decoherence by a method similar to classical random coding. The method is applicable to arbitrary error-inducing Hamiltonians and general quantum systems. The quantum encoding approaches the Hamming upper bound for large dimension increases. Applicability of the method is demonstrated with a seven-qubit toy computer.

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The purpose of this project was to construct a holonomic mobile robot driven with omni wheels. That would enable movement in all degrees of freedom. The finished product was a robot platform within a spherical shell body controlled by input commands defining speed and direction from a wireless communication medium. The platform was iteratively designed and constructed with parts made out of laser cut acrylic plastic. By using omni wheels powered by Direct Current (DC) motors, which will be described further, the holonomic drive could be realized as the wheel hubs were placed on the platform with calculated angles. / Syftet med detta projekt var att konstruera en holonomisk robot, vilket kan uppfyllas med hjälp av omnihjul som kan drivas i samtliga riktningar i planet. Den färdiga produkten blev en robot som placerats i en sfärisk kropp som tar in hastighet- och riktningssignaler från en trådlös kommunikationsmodul. Plattformen, som iterativt designades, laserskärdes ur akrylplast. På den placerades omni-hjul drivna av DC-motorer, vilka möjliggjorde den holonomiska rörelsen

Cette thèse traite de la modélisation dynamique des systèmes non-holonomes intermittents et de son application à la bicyclette 3D de Whipple. Pour cela, nous nous sommes appuyés sur un ensemble d'outils en mécanique géométrique (réduction Lagrangienne et projection dans le noyau des contraintes cinématiques essentiellement). Dans un premier temps, nous avons traité le cas de la bicyclette persistante. En définissant l'espace des configurations du vélo comme un fibré principal de groupe structural SE(3), nous avons obtenu un modèle des points de contact et des contraintes exempt de toute non-linéarité associée à un paramétrage de type coordonnées généralisées. Cette formulation nous a permis d'obtenir le noyau des contraintes sous une forme symbolique sans singularité. Nous avons alors produit un modèle symbolique de la dynamique de la bicyclette persistante en utilisant la méthode de réduction par projection de sa dynamique libre dans le sous espace de ses vitesses admissibles. Cette approche étend le cadre général mis au point ces dernières années pour la locomotion bio-inspirée. Profitant de la structure de SE(3), un modèle de la bicyclette intermittente a été proposé dans le cadre d'une approche événementielle. L'adoption du modèle physique de l'impact plastique, nous a permis d'étendre la méthode de réduction par projection au cas intermittent. Nous avons alors comparé notre approche "réduite" à l'approche classiquement utilisée et avons montré qu'elles partageaient une interprétation géométrique commune. Ces outils ont finalement été appliqués à la simulation de la bicyclette intermittente afin d'illustrer la richesse de sa dynamique. / This thesis deals with the dynamic modelling of intermittent non-holonomic systems andits application to the Whipple 3D bicycle. To that end, we relied on a set of tools in geometric mechanics (mainly Lagrangian reduction and the projection in the kernel of the kinematic constraints). In the first instance, we have addressed the case of the bicycle subjected to persistent contacts. By defining the space of the bicycle configurations as a principal fibre bundle with SE(3) as structural group, we obtained a model of the contact points and of the constraints free of any non-linearities associated with a generalized coordinate type configuration. This formulation allowed us to obtain the kernel of the constraints in a symbolic form without singularity. We then produced a symbolic model of the dynamics ofthe bicycle subjected to persistent contacts using the projection reduction method of its free dynamics in the subspace of its permissible speeds. This approach extends the general framework developed in recent years for bio-inspired locomotion. Taking advantage of the structure of SE(3), a model of the intermittent bicycle was proposed as part of an event-driven approach. Moreover, the adoption ofthe physical model of plastic impact has allowed us to extend the projection reduction method to the intermittent case. We then compared our "reduced" approach to the conventional approach and showed that they shared a common geometric interpretation. These tools were finally applied to the simulation of the intermittent bicycle to illustrate its rich dynamics.

Motion planning and control synthesis are challenging problems for underactuated mechanical systems due to the presence of passive (non-actuated) degrees of freedom. For those systems that are additionally not feedback linearizable and with unstable internal dynamics there are no generic methods for planning trajectories and their feedback stabilization. For fully actuated mechanical systems, on the other hand, there are standard tools that provide a tractable solution. Still, the problem of generating efficient and optimal trajectories is nontrivial due to actuator limitations and motion-dependent velocity and acceleration constraints that are typically present. It is especially challenging for manipulators with kinematic redundancy. A generic approach for solving the above-mentioned problems is described in this work. We explicitly use the geometry of the state space of the mechanical system so that a synchronization of the generalized coordinates can be found in terms of geometric relations along the target motion with respect to a path coordinate. Hence, the time evolution of the state variables that corresponds to the target motion is determined by the system dynamics constrained to these geometrical relations, known as virtual holonomic constraints. Following such a reduction for underactuated mechanical systems, we arrive at integrable second-order dynamics associated with the passive degrees of freedom. Solutions of this reduced dynamics, together with the geometric relations, can be interpreted as a motion generator for the full system. For fully actuated mechanical systems the virtually constrained dynamics provides a tractable way of shaping admissible trajectories. Once a feasible target motion is found and the corresponding virtual holonomic constraints are known, we can describe dynamics transversal to the orbit in the state space and analytically compute a transverse linearization. This results in a linear time-varying control system that allows us to use linear control theory for achieving orbital stabilization of the nonlinear mechanical system as well as to conduct system analysis in the vicinity of the motion. The approach is applicable to continuous-time and impulsive mechanical systems irrespective of the degree of underactuation. The main contributions of this thesis are analysis of human movement regarding a nominal behavior for repetitive tasks, gait synthesis and stabilization for dynamic walking robots, and description of a numerical procedure for generating and stabilizing efficient trajectories for kinematically redundant manipulators.