Single-Input Planar Navigation via Proportional Heading Control Exploiting Nonholonomic Mechanics or Vortex Shedding

Abstract

We present a strategy for coupled steering and motion generation applicable to a class of single-input planar robotic vehicles. We demonstrate this strategy through simulations of two different vehicles under closed-loop control, the first a novel variation of the Chaplygin sleigh and the second a fishlike swimmer in an ideal fluid. The dynamics of the former are influenced by a nonholonomic constraint and the dynamics of the latter by a hydrodynamic force associated with vortex shedding. The juxta-position of these two systems highlights a link between nonholonomic mechanics and hydrodynamics explored in a prior paper.