An integrated environment for the modeling and simulation of mechatronics devices

One of the most common sources of performance limitation in the control of mechatronic systems is associated to the coupling dynamics of the different degrees of freedom, induced by the elasticity in some components. Indeed, in industrial environments, they must perform tasks with rapidity and accuracy in order to produce goods and services with minimal production time. These procedures require the use of flexible robots which can act in a large workspace, thus subject to important parameters variations. The design of the control system should guarantee a damped behavior of the load position, both in the set point response and in the rejection of the disturbances arising from the joints operation. This paper presents an application of generalized predictive control (GPC) to a robot trajectory control using an integrated virtual environment for the modeling and simulation of mechatronics devices