Repetitive Control Meets Continuous Zero Phase Error Tracking Controller for Precise Tracking of B-Spline Trajectories

In this paper, a novel repetitive control scheme is presented and discussed, based on the so-called B-spline filters. These dynamic filters are able to generate a B-spline trajectory if they are fed with the sequence of control points defining the curve. Therefore, they are ideal tools for generating online reference signals with the prescribed level of smoothness for driving dynamic systems, possibly together with a feedforward compensator. In particular, a continuous zero phase error tracking controller (ZPETC) can be used for tracking control of nonminimum phase systems but because of its open-loop nature it cannot guarantee the robustness with respect to modeling errors and exogenous disturbances. For this reason, ZPETC and trajectory generator have been embedded in a repetitive control scheme that allows to nullify interpolation errors even in nonideal conditions, provided that the desired reference trajectory and the disturbances are periodic. This paper is based on the results presented in the conference paper [L. Biagiotti, F. Califano, and C. Melchiorri, “Repetitive control of non-minimum phase systems along b-spline trajectories,” in Proc. IEEE 55th Conf. Decis. Control, 2016, pp. 5496-5501.], where asymptotic stability of the overall control scheme has been proved mathematically, but extends such results with an experimental validation based on a nonminimum phase system. Different models of the same physical system have been identified and used in the implementation of this model-based control scheme, allowing a real evaluation of the relationship between control system performance and model accuracy.