THIS PAPER CONSIDERS QUALITATIVE BEHAVIOR OF ROBOTS TREATED AS COMPUTER CONTROLLED MECHANICAL SYSTEMS WITH CHANGING CONFIGURATION. VARIATIONS IN THE EQUATIONS OF MOTION DUE TO CHANGES IN INERTIAL TERMS REPRESENT ONE OF THE PRINCIPLE CHALLENGES IN THE CONTROL OF BOTH STATIONARY AND MOBILE ROBOTS. IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR CONTROL OF SPACE OR UNDERSEA ROBOTS WHERE THE PLATFORMS ARE NOT ATTACHED TO FIXED STRUCTURES. AN APPROACH IS SUGGESTED FOR QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SUCH ROBOTS USING DIFFERENT EQUATIONS CONTAINING PARAMETERS AND THEORY OF SINGULARITIES OF DIFFERENTIAL MAPPINGS.
