Theoretical aspects in practical tracking. Application to a robot control

The first part of this paper presents a new definition of the practical tracking with vector settling time and vector reachability time for a mechanical system. The sufficient conditions are established in order to guarantee that a mechanical system controlled by a control algorithm exhibits the requested practical tracking. The control problem is tackled in the second part of the paper. Among the different mechanical systems, an industrial robot is chosen in order to synthesise the output tracking control. The mathematical model of the robot includes the friction forces and the external perturbations. The proposed controller does not use information about them. It ensures the requested practical tracking quality. The simulations are realised for a rotational three-degree-of-freedom robot. They verify that the control algorithm implementation guarantees the theoretical results