Predictor-Based Control for Nonlinear Mechanical Systems with Measurement Delay.

Abstract In this paper, a controller for nonlinear systems with delay in the measurement using a predictor-based strategy is proposed. The nonlinear systems considered in this work are the class of mechanical systems of triangular form and which mathematical model can be obtained by means of the Euler-Lagrange formulation. A predictor for the mechanical nonlinear system is applied in order to get a delay-free system. Then, a tracking PD controller is designed using the predictor to compensate the delay effect. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the control scheme proposed, two examples are presented, one to show the performance of the predictor and the other one to show the use of such predictor in order to control the system. Then, a tracking controller for time-varying references is designed for mechanical systems with measurement delay, and the performance is shown during simulation. Additionally, it is considered the case when external disturbances are present in the system and to deal with them a method of estimation of the disturbance is proposed. The results are shown and discussed and finally the conclusions for this work are given and ideas for future work are proposed.