  We propose a control approach for a class of nonlinear mechanical systems to
stabilize the system under study while ensuring that the oscillations of the
transient response are reduced. The approach is twofold: (i) we apply our
technique for linear viscous damping identification of the system to improve
the accuracy of the selected control technique, and (ii) we implement a
passivity-based controller to stabilize and reduce the oscillations by
selecting the control parameters properly in accordance with the identified
damping. Moreover, we provide an analysis for a particular passivity-based
control approach that has been shown successfully for reducing such
oscillations. Also, we validate the methodology by implementing it
experimentally in a planar manipulator.
