Addressing the difficult problem of controlling flexible spacecraft having multiple articulated appendages is the aim of this volume. Such systems are needed for space mission concepts including multi-payload space platforms and autonomous space-based manipulators. These systems are characterised by highly nonlinear dynamics, flexibility in members and joints, low inherent damping, and modeling uncertainty. A complete nonlinear rotational dynamic model of a generic multibody flexible system is derived, and is shown to possess certain passivity properties. The main result is a class of passivity-based nonlinear and linear output feedback control laws that enable globally stable closed-loop manoeuvres. The control laws are robust to parametric uncertainties, unmodeled uncertainties, and in some cases, actuator and sensor nonlinearities. All results given are also applicable to flexible terrestrial manipulators.

Product Description: Political participation individual citizens taking part in the body politic is a globally accepted ideal. But opinions differ about how to put this ideal into practice, leading to a variety of forms and implementations. The essays in this volume chart the tension at different times and places, from the discovery of citizen participation in antiquity to the present...read more

Product Description: The central feature of every true lottery is that all rational evaluation is deliberately excluded. Once this principle is grasped, the author argues, we can begin to understand exactly what benefits sortition can bring to the political community...read more

Product Description: Addressing the difficult problem of controlling flexible spacecraft having multiple articulated appendages is the aim of this volume. Such systems are needed for space mission concepts including multi-payload space platforms and autonomous space-based manipulators...read more

Product Description: "Finally, a thoughtful and pointed critique of contemporary liberal theory . . . that breaks fresh ground by treating liberal theory as a form of political education which is deeply dependent upon a distinctive culture and strongly imbued with a particular conception of reason...read more