Active Vibration Control of a Flexible Plate Structure using Ant System Algorithm

This paper presents investigations into modeling and active vibration control (AVC) of a flexible plate structure using continuous ant system algorithm (CASA) such structures. The optimization technique is utilized to obtain a dynamic model of a flexible plate structure based on auto-regressive with exogenous (ARX) input model structure. The flexible plate structure is subjected to two different disturbance signal types, namely random, and finite duration step. The fitness function for the CASA is the mean-squared error (MSE) between the measured and estimated outputs of the plate. The validation of the algorithm is presented in both time and frequency domains. The developed CASA modeling approach is used for AVC system design to suppress the vibration of the flexible plate. The performance of the controller is assessed in terms of level of attenuation achieved in the power spectral density of the observed signal.