The predefined-time stabilization of second-order systems, i.e. the fixed-time stabilization with settling time as a function of the controller parameters, is revisited in this paper. The proposed controller is a time-based switched controller which first drive the system trajectories to a linear manifold in predefined time and then uses a nested second order controller. The application of the results is demonstrated
for the trajectory tracking control in fully actuated mechanical systems. An illustrative example of the control of a two-link planar manipulator with predefined-time convergence shows the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
