Impulsive control of a mechanical oscillator with friction

Undesired dynamics (stick-slip motions, limit cycles, etc.) that appear in friction systems result in steady-state errors, limiting achievable performance. To enhance the performance a novel control approach counteracting friction effects is developed. The approach is based on an impulsive actuation while the underlying system is getting stuck due to the presence of dry friction. A spring-mass system serves as a simple test bed. Asymptotic stabilization is achieved not only for the nominal model but also for its perturbed version provided that external disturbances affecting the system are of sufficiently small magnitude.