Tracking control of the two-link manipulator using nonlinear model predictive control

Model predictive control (MPC) an optimization-based approach that decides a control input by the optimal computation as the system output tracks the reference trajectory which is the ideal trajectory while the system output converges on the desired value. In this paper, a tracking controller for the two-link manipulator on the horizontal space via nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) is proposed. In order to guarantee a tracking performance, the time constant of reference trajectory in proposed controller, it is set as the fixed constant value in common, changes based on error signal between controlled variable and time-variant desired values. For decision of the control inputs, we use the inverse system with assuming angular acceleration is constant in interval of one step and realize the system to track for the reference trajectory in next step. In order to show the effectiveness of proposed NMPC controller, numerical simulations comparing between proposed method and previous method are performed.