Exciting Efficient Oscillations in Nonlinear Mechanical Systems Through Eigenmanifold Stabilization

Nonlinear modes are a well investigated concept in dynamical systems theory, extending the celebrated modal analysis of linear mechanical systems to nonlinear ones. This letter moves a first step in the direction of combining control theory and nonlinear modal analysis towards the implementation of hyper-efficient oscillatory behaviors in mechanical systems with non-Euclidean metric. Rather than forcing a prescribed evolution, we first investigate the regular behaviors that can be autonomously expressed by the system, and then we design a controller that excites them. A first implementation of this concept is proposed, analyzed, and tested in simulation.