Control of Underactuated Manipulators: Design and Optimization

This book investigates in detail cutting-edge technologies of underactuated manipulator control, which is a frontier topic in robotics that possesses great significance in energy conservation as well as fault tolerance for industrial applications. It is also the crucial technology associated with systems in special environments, including underwater or aerospace environments. So far, the topic of underactuated manipulator control has attracted engineers and scientists from various disciplines, such as applied physics, material, automation and robotics. Pursuing a holistic approach, the book establishes a fundamental framework for this topic, while emphasizing the importance of design and optimization in the control of underactuated manipulators. Chapters of the book cover a wide variety of manipulator systems, including vertical underactuated manipulator, planar underactuated manipulator with first-order nonholonomic constraint, planar underactuated manipulator with second-order nonholonomic constraint and flexible underactuated manipulator. The book is intended for undergraduate and graduate students that are interested in underactuated manipulators, researchers that investigate the design and optimization for controllers of underactuated manipulators and engineers working with underactuated systems.

Jundong Wu

Dr. Jundong Wu was born in Hunan, China, in 1992. He received the B.S. degree in microelectronics from the School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2014, and the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, the United States, in 2017, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, in 2022.

In 2022, he joined the School of Automation, China University of Geosciences as a Professor. His current research interests include underactuated robot control, soft robot modeling and control, and nonlinear system control, in which he has over 20 paper publications. He currently owns 3 research projects, funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the China Postdoctoral Science Fund. He was also elected into the Talent Plan of Hubei Province.

Pan Zhang

Dr. Pan Zhang received the B.S. and Ph.D. degree in engineering from China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China, in 2015 and 2020, respectively.

From 2017 to 2020, she was a Research Intern with the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada. In 2020, she joined the School of Automation, China University of Geosciences, where she is currently an Associate Professor. Her current research interests include underactuated robot control, nonlinear system control and intelligent control.

Qingxin Meng

Dr. Qingxin Meng received the B.S. degree in engineering from the Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, China, in 2016, and the Ph.D. degree in engineering from the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China, in 2021.

From 2019 to 2021, he was a Research Intern with the Departmentof Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada. In 2022, he joined the School of Automation, China University of Geosciences, where he is currently a Professor. His current research interests include flexible robot control, vibration control and nonlinear system control.

Yawu Wang

Dr. Yawu Wang received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering from the Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2011 and 2015, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in engineering from the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China, in 2018.

He was a joint doctoral student with the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada, from 2017 to 2018. In 2019, he joined the School of Automation, China University of Geosciences, where he is currently a Professor. His current research interests include underactuated robot control, soft robot modeling and control, and intelligent control.