Discontinuous control of nonholonomic systems

The problem of asymptotic convergence for a class of nonholonomic control systems via discontinuous control is addressed and solved from a new point of view. It is shown that control laws, which ensures asymptotic (exponential) convergence of the closed-loop system, can be easily designed if the system is described in proper coordinates. In such coordinates, the system is discontinuous. Hence, the problem of local asymptotic stabilization for a class of discontinuous nonholonomic control systems is dealt with and a general procedure to transform a continuous system into a discontinuous one is presented. Moreover, a general strategy to design discontinuous control laws, yielding asymptotic convergence, for a class of nonholonomic control systems is proposed. The enclosed simulation results show the effectiveness of the method.