Controllability of Mechanical Systems with Regard for Actuator

A series of studies on controllability of thenonlinear dynamic mechanical systems such as manipulators,aircraft, or water-craft was advanced. Earlier, controllabilitywas considered without regard for dynamics of the mechanicalsystem actuators. The present paper established a controllabilitycriterion for the mechanical systems where actuator dynamics wasexplicitly taken into account. The established conditions forcontrollability have a clear physical sense. As before, thecontrollability conditions are related with domination of thecontrol forces over other generalized forces of weight,environmental resistance, and so on. Now domination is required inthe rate of force variation, that is, in the derivative. Stateddifferently, it is required that the actuator output may varyrather rapidly.