Constrained motion planning of nonholonomic systems

This paper addresses the constrained motion planning problem for nonholonomic systems represented by driftless control systems with output. The problem consists in defining a control function driving the system output to a desirable point at a given time instant, whereas state and control variables remain over the control horizon within prescribed bounds. The state and control constraints are handled by extending the control system with a pair of state equations driven by the violation of constraints, and adding regularizing perturbations. For the regularized system a Jacobian motion planning algorithm is designed, called imbalanced. Solutions of example constrained motion planning problems for the rolling ball illustrate the theoretical concepts. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.