SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Vol.41, No.6, 1901-1921, 2002
Configuration controllability of mechanical systems underactuated by one control
We investigate local configuration controllability for mechanical control systems within the a. ne connection formalism. We rely on previous results on controllability and series expansions for the evolution of mechanical systems starting from rest. Extending the work by Lewis for the single-input case, we are able to characterize local configuration controllability for systems with n degrees of freedom and n - 1 input forces.