A control strategy consisting of a feedforward action and a robust feedback for a gate automation is presented, where a low-cost and non-regenerative motor drive is used. A model of the system is developed and feedback linearization is used to compensate for the highly nonlinear dynamics of the electric drive. To achieve good motion tracking performance we design a smooth reference associated with a feedforward action, based on the nominal model of the system. In addition, based on a model of the uncertainties a robust feedback controller is tuned by solving a set of linear matrix inequalities, combining the optimization of a LQR cost with some pole placement constraints. Finally, we test the proposed control strategy on an experimental device, obtaining satisfactory results.