Hydraulic excavators are versatile machines used in a wide range of operations such as digging, removal of debris, transportation of cargo and earthmoving in general. Operating a hydraulic excavator in certain environments is a difficult and dangerous task, especially in hazardous environments subject to natural disturbances or inadequate health conditions for human work. Because of these conditions, the automation of excavators or their components has been the subject of many studies in the

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... t years. In this paper, a control system for the manipulator of a mini-excavator is synthesized. The control is based on a reduced mathematical model proposed by the authors to represent all the manipulator dynamics. The work includes results from the controller tests by means of computational simulation with a complete reference model. Results are discussed and evaluated, and suggestions for future work are enclosed.