Virtual Decomposition Control

Driven by the need to achieve superior control performances for robots with hyper degrees of freedom, the virtual decomposition control approach is thoroughly presented in this book. This approach uses subsystem (such as links and joints of a complex robot) dynamics to conduct control design, while guaranteeing the stability and convergence of the entire complex robot without compromising the rigorousness of the system analysis. The central concept of this approach is the definition of the virtual stability. The stability of the entire complex robot is mathematically equivalent to the virtual stability of every subsystem. This fact allows us to convert a large problem to a few simple problems with mathematical certainty.