This paper develops a feedback control solution for the automatisation of a motorized skateboard, also called symmetric snakeboard in the Robotics and Automatic Control literature. Controlling this system is particularly challenging due to the association of kinematic and dynamic nonintegrable constraints to which it is subjected. The Transverse Function approach, combined with backstepping, is used to derive dynamic feedback laws that ensure practical stabilization of arbitrary reference trajectories in the Cartesian space. Simulation results illustrate the proposed approach.

We investigate the use of simple aerodynamic models for the feedback control of aerial vehicles with large flight envelopes. Thrust-propelled vehicles with a body shape symmetric with respect to the thrust axis are considered. Upon a condition on the aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle, we show that the equilibrium orientation can be explicitly determined as a function of the desired flight velocity. This allows for the adaptation of previously proposed control design approaches based on the thrust direction control paradigm. Simulation results conducted by using measured aerodynamic characteristics of quasi-axisymmetric bodies illustrate the soundness of the proposed approach.