Desired Trajectory following by Feedforward Anticipation

Abstract

This work presents a tracking method that is easy to design and implement. In particular, it is considered the tracking of a predefined trajectory whose temporal derivatives are known. This anticipated information of the desired reference signal allows, by employing a guaranteed dominant pole placement criterion, the formulation of a control law that uses the conventional feedback error compensation together with the anticipated knowledge of the derivatives of the reference signal. This provides substantial improvements in the closed-loop behavior of the system, impossible to achieve using only the feedback compensation. A numerical example, the steering of a ship and a real application, the control of a rotary flexible joint, show the effectiveness of the proposed method.