Background The paper presents position tracking systems for a.c. drives offering high robustness to external disturbances. Two alternative position control loop designs both of which respect prescribed dynamics are developed. To enhance the tracking abilities of both control systems the dynamic lag pre-compensator is included. The tracking performances of the designed control systems are assessed by means of comparisons of the experimental responses with the simulated responses of the ideal closed-loop system. Material and methods Advantage of FDC of a.c. drives speed reponse with linear first order dynamics has been exploited for the design of the two modified position control systems based on the second order dynamics. Results Implementation of FOC drives combined with FDC laws yielding known linear closed loop dynamics, together with a zero dynamic lag pre-compensator enabled to follow accurately pre-computed time near-optimal and energy near-optimal reference input functions, forcing the control systems to react with a near-optimal behavior. Conclusions Presented case studies for time near-optimal and energy near-optimal control of the drives employing PMSM and IM have confirmed good tracking abilities of the designed position control systems.