This seminar presents the modeling and
point-to-point motion control of gantry robots. Cartesian mechanisms are often
used for high-precision manufacturing tasks such as the assembly of printed
circuit boards. A mathematical model is derived for controller design purposes,
incorporating a varying mass distribution, structural bending vibrations and
friction disturbances. The control system is designed using a gain-scheduled
H-infinity methodology in order to cope with these difficulties and to achieve
a small motion settling time. Practically relevant experiments on an
industry-grade prototype gantry robot are performed to reveal the extent to
which rapid positioning may be carried out with micrometer precision.