Throwing Motion Control of the Springed Pendubot

This brief describes a control strategy for the throwing motion of an underactuated two-link planar robot called the Pendubot. The springed Pendubot is built based on the concept of unstable zero dynamics, and our investigation uses it as a dynamic model of superior limbs to imitate human throwing motion. In the proposed control strategy, the zero dynamics is intentionally destabilized when a ball held by the end-effector is constrained on a geometric path in a vertical plane, using output zeroing control for the deviation between the ball and geometric path. The unstable zero dynamics drives the ball along the geometric path to achieve fast and accurate throw in a desired direction. The unstable zero dynamics is analytically derived to guarantee the dynamic acceleration of the ball along the geometric path. Numerical simulations and experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.