A NOTE ON POLE PLACEMENT OF MECHANICAL SYSTEMS

An output feedback method is developed, that systematically places a desired number of poles of a closed-loop system at or near desired locations. The system is transformed to its equivalent controllable canonical form, where the output feedback gain matrix is calculated in a weighted least squares scheme, that minimizes the change of the remaining modes of the system. The advantage of this method over other pole placement routines is the fact that the influence on the remaining unplaced modes of the system is minimum, which is particularly important in preserving closed-loop stability.