Structured H∞ Control for Spacecraft with Flexible Appendages

Spacecraft with large flexible appendages are characterized by multiple system modes. They suffer from inherent low-frequency disturbances in the operating environment that consequently result in considerable interference in the operational performance of the system. It is required that the control design ensures the system’s high pointing precision, and it is also necessary to suppress low-frequency resonant interference as well as take into account multiple performance criteria such as attitude stability and bandwidth constraints. Aiming at the comprehensive control problem of this kind of flexible spacecraft, we propose a control strategy using a structured H-infinity controller with low complexity that was designed to meet the multiple performance requirements, so as to reduce the project cost and implementation difficulty. According to the specific resonant mode of the system, the design strategy of adding an internal mode controller, a trap filter, and a series PID controller to the structured controller is proposed, so as to achieve the comprehensive control goals through cooperative control of multiple control modules. A spacecraft with flexible appendages (solar array) is presented as an illustrative example in which a weighted function was designed for each performance requirement of the system (namely robustness, stability, bandwidth limit, etc.), and a structured comprehensive performance matrix with multiple performance weights and decoupled outputs was constructed. A structured H-infinity controller meeting the comprehensive performance requirements is given, which provides a structured integrated control method with low complexity for large flexible systems that is convenient for engineering practice, and provides a theoretical basis and reference examples for structured H-infinity control. The simulation results show that the proposed controller gives better control performance compared with the traditional H-infinity one, and can successfully suppress the vibration of large flexible appendages at 0.12 Hz and 0.66 Hz.     

Actuator saturation control of uncertain structures with input time delay

This paper presents a robust saturation control approach for active vibration attenuation of building structures involving parameter uncertainties and input time delay. The parameter uncertainties are described in both polytopic and norm-bounded forms and represent the variations of floor masses, stiffnesses and damping coefficients. The input time delay can be time-varying within a known bound. In terms of the feasibility of certain delay-dependent linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), a state feedback controller can be designed to guarantee the robust stability and performance of the closed-loop system in the presence of parameter uncertainties, actuator saturation, and input time delay. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is investigated by numerical simulations on the vibration control of a three-storey building structure subject to seismic excitation. It is validated that the designed robust saturation controller can effectively suppress the structural vibration and keep the system stability when there are parameter uncertainties and input time delay.     

Multifunctional design of inertially-actuated velocity feedback controllers

The vibration of a structure can be controlled using either a passive tuned mass damper or using an active vibration control system. In this paper, the design of a multifunctional system is discussed, which uses an inertial actuator as both a tuned mass damper and as an element in a velocity feedback control loop. The natural frequency of the actuator would normally need to be well below that of the structure under control to give a stable velocity feedback controller, whereas it needs to be close to the natural frequency of a dominant structural resonance to act as an effective tuned mass damper. A compensator is used in the feedback controller here to allow stable feedback operation even when the actuator natural frequency is close to that of a structural mode. A practical example of such a compensator is described for a small inertial actuator, which is then used to actively control the vibrations both on a panel and on a beam. The influence of the actuator as a passive tuned mass damper can be clearly seen before the feedback loop is closed, and broadband damping is then additionally achieved by closing the velocity feedback loop.     

Control of a rotating cantilever beam using a torque actuator and a distributed piezoelectric polymer actuator

A torque actuator and a distributed piezoelectric polymer (PVDF) actuator are utilized for control of a rotating cantilever flexible beam. The torque control contains proportional and derivative (PD) feedback for rigid motion control and a PVDF actuator control for vibration damping. Unlike previous approaches in the literature in which the angular velocity feedback was utilized, in this study we propose to use the linear velocity feedback (L-type) in our controller design for feasible implementation and avoiding modal truncation. The stability of the system with the L-type control has been analyzed, using the concept of a virtual joint model. The advantage of the proposed scheme lies in easy implementation, avoidance of modal truncation, efficient suppression of the dominant mode of vibration, and allowing high-speed motions. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Self-powered active vibration control using a single electric actuator

The authors have proposed self-powered active vibration control systems that achieve active vibration control using regenerated vibration energy. Such systems do not require external energy to produce a control force. This paper presents a self-powered system in which a single actuator realizes active control and energy regeneration.The system proposed needs to regenerate more energy than it consumes. To discuss the feasibility of this system, the authors proposed a method to calculate the balance between regenerated and consumed energies, using the dynamical property of the system, the feedback gain of the active controller, the specifications of the actuator, and the power spectral density of disturbance. A trade-off was found between the performance of the active controller and the energy balance. The feedback gain of the active controller is designed to have good suppression performance under conditions where regenerated energy exceeds consumed energy.A practical system to achieve self-powered active vibration control is proposed. In the system, the actuator is connected to the condenser through relay switches, which decide the direction of the electric current, and a variable resistor, which controls the amount of the electric current. Performance of the self-powered active vibration was examined in experiments; the results showed that the proposed system can produce the desired control force with regenerated energy, and that it had a suppression performance similar to that of an active control system using external energy. It was found that self-powered active control is attainable under conditions obtained through energy balance analysis.     

Motion planning and actuator specialization in the control of active-flexible link robots

Trajectory planning is a well-known open-loop control strategy to minimize residual vibrations in point-to-point tasks of systems featuring mechanical flexibility. However, the major drawback of open-loop control is its limitation in coping with modeling uncertainty. In this paper a novel approach to trajectory planning based on LQR theory is proposed and applied to a single flexible link robot. To improve performance under parameter uncertainty the strategy is combined with collocated vibration control through piezoelectric actuation of the link. This combination raises the issue of the roles and the contribution of each actuator type to the overall performance of the maneuver. An actuator specialization is proposed where the joint controller is responsible for the gross vibrationless motion of the link, while the link actuators are expected to deal only with residual vibrations that may arise from modeling errors. Simulation and experimental results validate the trajectory planning methodology and the combination of the open-loop strategy with collocated vibration control.     

ROBUST VIBRATION CONTROL OF A BEAM USING THE H∞-BASED CONTROLLER WITH MODEL ERROR COMPENSATOR

The vibration control of a flexible beam subjected to arbitrary, unmeasurable disturbance forces is investigated in this paper. The beam is analyzed by using modal expansion theorem. The independent modal space control is adopted for the active vibration control. Discrete sensors and actuators are used here. The modal filters are used as the state estimator to obtain the modal co-ordinates and modal velocities for the state feedback control. Because of the existence of the disturbance forces, the vibration control only with the state feedback control law cannot suppress the vibration well. The method of disturbance forces cancellation is then added in the feedback loop. In order to implement the disturbance forces cancellation, the unknown disturbance forces must be observed. The model error compensator is employed to observe the unknown disturbance modal forces for the direct cancellation. After the implementation of the disturbance modal forces cancellation, there are still some residual disturbance modal forces which excite the beam. The disturbance attenuation problem is of concern in the design of the state feedback control law. For ensuring that influence of the residual disturbance modal forces is reduced to an acceptable level, the robust static H_∞ state feedback controller is designed. The vibration control performances of the feedback control with the H_∞ controller and the disturbance forces cancellation are discussed.     

Neural adaptive chaotic control with constrained input using state and output feedback

This paper presents neural adaptive control methods for a class of chaotic nonlinear systems in the presence of constrained input and unknown dynamics.To attenuate the influence of constrained input caused by actuator saturation,an effective auxiliary system is constructed to prevent the stability of closed loop system from being destroyed.Radial basis function neural networks(RBF-NNs)are used in the online learning of the unknown dynamics,which do not require an off-line training phase.Both state and output feedback control laws are developed.In the output feedback case,high-order sliding mode(HOSM)observer is utilized to estimate the unmeasurable system states.Simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness of proposed schemes.     

Suppression of random vibration in flexible structures using a hybrid vibration absorber

A design method is proposed to suppress stationary random vibration in flexible structures using a hybrid vibration absorber (HVA). While the traditional vibration absorber can damp down the vibration mainly at the pre-tuned mode of the primary structure, active damping is generated by the proposed HVA to damp down all resonant modes of interest of the vibrating structure and the spatial average mean square motion of the vibrating structure can be minimized. Only one absorber and one feedback signal are required to achieve global vibration suppression of a flexible structure under stationary random excitation. A special pole-placement controller is designed such that all vibration modes of the flexible structures become critically damped. It is proved analytically that the proposed HVA damps the vibration of the entire structure instead of just the attachment point of the absorber. The proposed optimized HVA is tested on a beam structure and it shows a superior performance on global suppression of broadband vibration in comparison to other published designs of passive and hybrid vibration absorbers.     

Self-tuning control systems of decentralised velocity feedback

This paper is concerned with decentralised velocity feedback for the control of vibration on a flexible structure. Previous studies have shown that a direct velocity feedback loop with a collocated force actuator produces a damping action. Multiple velocity feedback control loops thus reduce the vibration and sound radiation of structures at low frequency resonances, where the response is controlled by damping. However, if the control gains are too high, so that the response of the structure at the control point is close to zero, the feedback control loops will pin the panel at the control positions and thus no damping action is generated. Therefore, in order to maximise the active damping effect, the feedback gains have optimum values and the loops need to be properly tuned.In this paper, a numerical investigation is performed to investigate the possibility of self-tuning the feedback control gains to maximise the power absorbed by the control loops and hence maximise the active damping. The tuning principle is first examined for a single feedback loop for different excitation signals. The tuning of multiple control loops is then considered and the implementation of a practical tuning algorithm is discussed.     

Aeroelastic dynamic response and control of an airfoil section with control surface nonlinearities

Nonlinearities in aircraft mechanisms are inevitable, especially in the control system. It is necessary to investigate the effects of them on the dynamic response and control performance of aeroelastic system. In this paper, based on the state-dependent Riccati equation method, a state feedback suboptimal control law is derived for aeroelastic response and flutter suppression of a three degree-of-freedom typical airfoil section. With the control law designed, nonlinear effects of freeplay in the control surface and time delay between the control input and actuator are investigated by numerical approach. A cubic nonlinearity in pitch degree is adopted to prevent the aeroelastic responses from divergence when the flow velocity exceeds the critical flutter speed. For the system with a freeplay, the responses of both open- and closed-loop systems are determined with Runge-Kutta algorithm in conjunction with Henon’s method. This method is used to locate the switching points accurately and efficiently as the system moves from one subdomain into another. The simulation results show that the freeplay leads to a forward phase response and a slight increase of flutter speed of the closed-loop system. The effect of freeplay on the aeroelastic response decreases as the flow velocity increases. The time delay between the control input and actuator may impair control performance and cause high-frequency motion and quasi-periodic vibration.     

AN ESTIMATOR-BASED SLIDING-MODE CONTROL FOR MANEUVERING A FLEXIBLE SPACECRAFT

An estimator-based sliding-mode controller (ESMC) is discussed for a linear stochastic system with a known disturbance and is utilized in a flexible spacecraft for the reduction of residual vibration while allowing natural deflection during operation. By converting the tracking problem into a regulator problem, the ESMC minimizes the expected value of the guadratic objective function composed of errors which always remain in the intersection of sliding hypersurfaces. For the numerical evaluation to take place in a flexible with a flexible spacecraft, a large slewing maneuver strategy is devised, with a tracking model for the nominal trajectory. A start-coast-stop strategy for an economical maneuver is employed in conjunction with the input shaping technique. The performance and efficacy of the proposed control scheme are illustrated with a comparison of different maneuvering strategies.     

Global damping of noise or vibration fields with locally synthesized controllers

A locally synthesized controller (LSC) is one that uses a local feedback signal in a noise or vibration field (VF) to synthesize the actuation signal. The global damping of a VF by available LSCs requires sensor-actuator collocation. This study presents a LSC for the global damping of a VF without requiring sensor-actuator collocation, which is important to noise control applications where a sensor may be placed away from an actuator to avoid the near field effects. It is proven that the LSC damps the entire VF instead of just a local feedback loop. This is different from other LSCs that may control local feedback loops without damping the VFs. A decentralized control law is presented here to extend the LSC to a decentralized damping system using multiple actuators.     

Active damping control unit using a small scale proof mass electrodynamic actuator

This paper presents a study on the design and use of a small scale proof mass electrodynamic actuator, with a low mounting resonance frequency, for velocity feedback control on a thin rectangular panel. A stability-performance formula is derived, which can be effectively used to assess the down scaling effects on the stability and control performance of the feedback loop. The design and tests of a velocity feedback loop with a prototype small scale proof mass actuator are also presented. When a feedback control having a gain margin of about 6 dB is implemented, so that there is little control spillover effect around the fundamental resonance of the actuator, reductions of vibration between 5 dB and 10 dB in the frequency band between 80 Hz and 250 Hz have been measured at the control position.     

Robust control synthesis for seat suspension systems with actuator saturation and time-varying input delay

The control synthesis problem is investigated in this paper for a class of semi-active seat suspension systems with norm-bounded parameter uncertainties, time-varying input delay and actuator saturation. A vertical vibration model of human body is introduced in order to make the modeling of seat suspension systems more precise. By employing a delay-range-dependent Lyapunov function and exploring the property of the saturation nonlinearity, the existence conditions of the desired state-feedback controller are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The controller is derived by solving the LMIs and the corresponding closed-loop system is asymptotically stable with a guaranteed H_∞ performance. A design example is presented to show the usefulness and advantages of the developed theoretical results.     

Active vibroacoustic control with multiple local feedback loops

When multiple actuators and sensors are used to control the vibration of a panel, or its sound radiation, they are usually positioned so that they couple into specific modes and are all connected together with a centralized control system. This paper investigates the physical effects of having a regular array of actuator and sensor pairs that are connected only by local feedback loops. An array of 4 x 4 force actuators and velocity sensors is first simulated, for which such a decentralized controller can be shown to be unconditionally stable. Significant reductions in both the kinetic energy of the panel and in its radiated sound power can be obtained for an optimal value of feedback gain, although higher values of feedback gain can induce extra resonances in the system and degrade the performance. A more practical transducer pair, consisting of a piezoelectric actuator and velocity sensor, is also investigated and the simulations suggest that a decentralized controller with this arrangement is also stable over a wide range of feedback gains. The resulting reductions in kinetic energy and sound power are not as great as with the force actuators, due to the extra resonances being more prominent and at lower frequencies, but are still worthwhile. This suggests that an array of independent modular systems, each of which included an actuator, a sensor, and a local feedback control loop, could be a simple and robust method of controlling broadband sound transmission when integrated into a panel.     

Active vibration control using an inertial actuator with internal damping

Collocated direct velocity feedback with ideal point force actuators mounted on structures is unconditionally stable and generates active damping. When inertial actuators are used to generate the control force, the system can become unstable even for moderate velocity feedback gains due to an additional -180 degree phase lag introduced by the fundamental axial resonant mode of the inertial actuator. In this study a relative velocity sensor is used to implement an inner velocity feedback loop that generates internal damping in a lightweight, electrodynamic, inertial actuator. Simulation results for a model problem with the actuator mounted on a clamped plate show that, when internal relative velocity feedback is used in addition to a conventional external velocity feedback loop, there is an optimum combination of internal and external velocity feedback gains, which, for a given gain margin, maximizes vibration reduction. These predictions are validated in experiments with a specially built lightweight inertial actuator.     

Genetic algorithm based active vibration control for a moving flexible smart beam driven by a pneumatic rod cylinder

A rod cylinder based pneumatic driving scheme is proposed to suppress the vibration of a flexible smart beam. Pulse code modulation (PCM) method is employed to control the motion of the cylinder's piston rod for simultaneous positioning and vibration suppression. Firstly, the system dynamics model is derived using Hamilton principle. Its standard state-space representation is obtained for characteristic analysis, controller design, and simulation. Secondly, a genetic algorithm (GA) is applied to optimize and tune the control gain parameters adaptively based on the specific performance index. Numerical simulations are performed on the pneumatic driving elastic beam system, using the established model and controller with tuned gains by GA optimization process. Finally, an experimental setup for the flexible beam driven by a pneumatic rod cylinder is constructed. Experiments for suppressing vibrations of the flexible beam are conducted. Theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed pneumatic drive scheme and the adopted control algorithms are feasible. The large amplitude vibration of the first bending mode can be suppressed effectively.     

Active vibration control of beam structures using acceleration feedback control with piezoceramic actuators

In this study, the active vibration control of clamped–clamped beams using the acceleration feedback (AF) controller with a sensor/moment pair actuator configuration is investigated. The sensor/moment pair actuator is a non-collocated configuration, and it is the main source of instability in the direct velocity feedback control system. First, the AF controller with non-collocated sensor/moment pair actuator is numerically implemented for a clamped–clamped beam. Then, to characterize and solve the instability problem of the AF controller, a parametric study is conducted. The design parameters (gain and damping ratio) are found to have significant effects on the stability and performance of the AF controller. Next, based on the characteristics of AF controllers, a multimode controllable single-input single-output (SISO) AF controller is considered. Three AF controllers are connected in parallel with the SISO architecture. Each controller is tuned to a different mode (in this case, the second, third and fourth modes). The design parameters are determined on the basis of the parametric study. The multimode AF controller with the selected design parameters has good stability and a high gain margin. Moreover, it reduces the vibration significantly. The vibration levels at the tuned modes are reduced by about 12 dB. Finally, the performance of the AF controller is verified by conducting an experiment. The vibration level of each controlled mode can be reduced by about 12 dB and this value is almost same as the theoretical result.     

大型风电机组桨距角跟踪鲁棒自适应反演控制

针对具有很强非线性的风力机桨叶系统,利用动量矩定理,建立桨叶动力学数学模型,采用自适应反演控制,设计独立变桨鲁棒自适应桨距角跟踪控制器。该控制方法采用在实际控制量中,引入自适应鲁棒项,克服和消除不确定性对桨叶系统的影响。利用Matlab/Simulink软件,搭建风力机仿真平台,仿真结果验证了所提出控制方法的可行性和有效性。在桨叶系统参数不确定、受到未知不平衡载荷的情况下,经过自适应过程,设计的控制器较好地实现了风力机桨叶桨距角独立、快速跟踪各自期望的桨距角。