Stabilization of second-order nonholonomic systems in canonical chained form

Stabilization of a class of second-order nonholonomic systems in canonical chained form is investigated in this paper. First, the models of two typical second-order nonholonomic systems, namely, a three-link planar manipulator with the third joint unactuated, and a kinematic redundant manipulator with all joints free and driven by forces/torques imposing on the end-effector, are presented and converted to second-order chained form by transformations of coordinate and input. A discontinuous control law is then proposed to stabilize all states of the system to the desired equilibrium point exponentially. Computer simulation is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.