Active vibration suppression of a flexible structure using smart material and a modular control patch

This paper presents experimental results of vibration suppression of a flexible structure using smart materials and a miniaturized digital controller, called the modular control patch (MCP). The MCP employs a TI-C30 digital signal processor and was developed by TRW for the United States Air Force for future space vibration control. In this research, the MCP is used to implement different control algorithms for vibration suppression of a cantilevered aluminium beam. The beam is equipped with smart sensors and actuators, and both are made of piezoceramics. Positive position feedback (PPF) control, strain rate feedback (SRF) control and their combinations were implemented. Experiments found that PPF control is most effective for single-mode vibration suppression, and two PPF filters in parallel are most effective for multimode vibration suppression. Experiments also demonstrated the capacity of smart material being used as sensors and actuators for vibration suppression. The MCP was shown to be capable of implementing various real-time control laws.