Trajectory tracking control of variable length pendulum by partial energy shaping

•We concern a trajectory tracking control problem for a variable length pendulum.•We design a time-invariant controller by partial energy shaping.•We present a global motion analysis of the pendulum.•We clarify the stability of two closed-loop equilibrium points.

This paper concerns a trajectory tracking control problem for a pendulum with variable length, which is an underactuated mechanical system of two degrees-of-freedom with a single input of adjusting the length of the pendulum. We aim to study whether it is possible to design a time-invariant control law to pump appropriate energy into the variable length pendulum for achieving a desired swing motion (trajectory) with given desired energy and length of the pendulum. First, we show that it is difficult to avoid singular points in the controller designed by using the conventional energy-based control approach in which the total mechanical energy of the pendulum is controlled. Second, we present a tracking controller free of singular points by using only the kinetic energy of rotation and the potential energy of the pendulum and not using the kinetic energy of the motion along the rod. Third, we analyze globally the motion of the pendulum and clarify the stability issue of two closed-loop equilibrium points; and we also provide some conditions on control parameters for achieving the tracking objective. Finally, we show numerical simulation results to validate the presented theoretical results.