Guaranteed control of a robotic excavator during digging process

Automation of excavators offers a promise for increasing productivity of digging. At the same time, it´s a highly difficult issue due to presence of various nonlinearities and uncertainties in excavator mechanical structures and hydraulic actuators, disturbance when a bucket contacting the ground etc. This paper concerns the problem of robust trajectory tracking control of an excavator arm. To solve this problem, the computed torque control with the guaranteed cost control is considered. The mathematical tool of R-functions as an alternative to the linear matrix inequality approach to constructing information sets of an excavator arm state is used. Simulation results and functional ability analysis for the proposed control system are given.