STABILITY INHERITANCE AND CONTACT DYNAMICS OF FLEXIBLE STRUCTURE EVOLVING SYSTEMS

A new framework called Evolving Systems has been proposed to describe the autonomous assembly of actively controlled subsystems into an Evolved System which aspires to a higher purpose. This paper examines the inheritance of stability in Evolving Systems of flexible structures. The contact dynamics of mating subsystem components are modeled using an impedance-admittance formulation. This approach leads to an observation of the conditions under which stability can be guaranteed in an Evolving System. A parameterization of all component impedances which stabilize a given component admittance is provided.