In order to control joints of manipulators with high precision, a position tracking control strategy combining fractional calculus with iterative learning control and sliding mode control is proposed for the control of a single joint of manipulators. Considering the coupling between joints of manipulators, a fractional-order iterative sliding mode cross-coupling control strategy is proposed and the theoretical proof of its progressive stability is given. The paper takes a two-joint manipulator as the research object to verify the control strategy of a single-joint manipulator. The results show that the control strategy proposed in this paper makes the two-joint mechanical arm chatter less and the tracking more accurate. The synchronous control of the manipulator is verified by a three-joint manipulator. The results show that the angular displacement adjustment times of the three-joint manipulator are 0.11 s, 0.31 s and 0.24 s, respectively. 3.25 s > 5 s, 3.15 s of a PD cross-coupling control strategy; 2.85 s, 2.32 s, 4.22 s of a PD iterative cross-coupling control strategy; 0.14 s, 0.33 s, 0.28 s of a fractional-order sliding mode cross-coupling control strategy. The root mean square error of the position error of the designed control strategy is 6.47 × 10-6 rad, 3.69 × 10-4 rad, 6.91 × 10-3 rad, respectively. The root mean square error of the synchronization error is 3.96 × 10-4 rad, 1.36 × 10-3 rad, 7.81 × 10-3 rad, superior to the other three control strategies. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.

In multi-axis motion control systems, the tracking errors of single axis load and the contour errors caused by the mismatch of dynamic characteristics between the moving axes will affect the accuracy of the motion control system. To solve this issue, a biaxial motion control strategy based on double-iterative learning and cross-coupling control is proposed. The proposed control method improves the accuracy of the motion control system by improving individual axis tracking performance and contour tracking performance. On this basis, a rapid control prototype (RCP) is designed, and the experiment is verified by the hardware and software platforms, LabVIEW and Compact RIO. The whole design shows enhancement in the precision of the motion control of the multiaxis system. The performance in individual axis tracking and contour tracking is greatly improved.