On the Design of Structure and Controls for Optimal Performance of Actively Controlled Flexible Structures

ABSTRACT

The simultaneous design of scruccure and active controls is considered for structures equipped with force controllers. Both requirements for mission control (prescribed terminal conditions) and for the control of structural response (control damping) are reflected in developments for the design of

distributed parameter and large scale structures. As an example of problems with simple modal control, the optimal design is predicted for a cantilevered beam and for the feedback gains and actuator positions of its discrete controllers. Also the additional criterion to limit control spillover is incorporated into the formulation for modal control with a prescribed number of controlled modes. Computational results indicate that in some cases the use of a fully coupled model for the design of structure and its control devices leads to a considerable improvement in performance.