Identification of underactuated mechanical systems

This chapter describes a parameter identification procedure, which aims to obtain an accurate model of actual experimental systems. The method is robust to disturbances that may be present in an experimental platform, only requiring the joint position and applied torque measurements. This procedure is described for the identification of underactuated systems, but can be easily extended to many types of systems, including fully-actuated mechanisms. As regards application examples, this chapter considers the identification of two underactuated mechatronic systems: the Furuta pendulum and the inertia wheel pendulum. The model and the identified parameters are used later to carry out numerical simulations and to implement model-based controllers for these systems.