Nonlinear Control of a Robotic Arm in the Electromechanical Domain

A growing number of industries are paying attention to research in robotics. Precision and speed of execution are necessary features that must not be underestimated during the design phase. In this context, the choice of actuators to be used and the control policy play a key role. In this paper, a prototype of a robotic arm is proposed together with its dynamic analysis. In particular, the problem at hand was studied in a multi-domain environment using two MATLAB toolboxes, namely SIMSCAPE MULTIBODY and SIMSCAPE ELECTRICAL. By combining multibody dynamics and electrical dynamics, the developed model of the robotic system is as close to reality as possible. The control architecture chosen is a proportional-derivative controller, which is widely used in industry for mechanical systems of this type. Consequently, from a software-in-the-loop perspective, the design and calibration of the controller yield more accurate results for subsequent hardware-in-the-loop and control prototyping phases.