The main objective of this paper is to study the motion control of a toggle mechanism actuated by an electrohydraulic system. This control system is a nonlinear time-varying one due to the internal leakage of the electrohydraulic system as well as the nonlinear dynamics of the toggle mechanism. The specified position-velocity profile of the output slider of the toggle mechanism is considered as the desired trajectory. The numerical results via the inverse dynamics control (IDC) and variable structure control (VSC) are compared for the control system with external disturbances. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.