Analysis of the dynamics of an underactuated robot: the forced pendubot

The reconstruction of attractors based on time series obtained from a two-link, planar, underactuated robot called "pendubot" is developed. Time-delay coordinates, average mutual information, and global false nearest neighbors' methods are used to reconstruct the invariant sets. It is shown that, under the action of a periodic torque, a pendubot can display a variety of steady-state dynamics, including strange attractors.