Investigation of the orbital stability of rectilinear motions of roller-racer on a vibrating plane

This paper addresses the problem of a roller-racer rolling on an oscillating plane. Equations of motion of the roller-racer in the form of a system of four nonautonomous differential equations are obtained. Two families of particular solutions are found which correspond to rectilinear motions of the roller-racer along and perpendicular to the plane's oscillations. Numerical estimates are given for the multipliers of solutions corresponding to the motion of the robot along the oscillations. Also, a special case is presented in which it is possible to obtain analytic expressions of the multipliers. In this case, it is shown that the motion along oscillations of a “folded” roller-racer is linearly orbitally stable as it moves with its joint ahead, and that all other motions are unstable. It is shown that, in a linear approximation, the family corresponding to the motion of the robot is perpendicular to the plane's oscillations, that is, it is unstable.