The book contains sections focusing on physical examples and elementary terms, as well as theoretical sections that use sophisticated analysis and geometry. The first four chapters offer preliminaries and background information, while the remaining five are broken down into chapters on nonholonomic mechanics, control and stabilization, optimal control, energy-based and recent energy-based techniques for mechanical and nonholonomic systems.
The second edition of the book extends many of the topics discussed in the first edition to incorporate both new research and more historical background. The additional material includes work on the Hamel equations and quasivelocities, discrete dynamics, both
holonomic and nonholonomic, Hamiltonization and the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. In addition new examples and exercises have been added.Review of earlier Edition (A.J. van der Schaft, IEEE Control System Magazine, 2005)
This book can be read on many different levels and has been described as a “delightful book that will be valuable for both the control community and researchers”.