Motion and vibration control of a slewing flexible structure by SMA actuators and parameter sensitivity analysis

Abstract

This work presents two approaches to the problem of vibration and positioning control of a flexible structural beam driven by a DC motor. The position is controlled by the current applied to the DC motor armature. A Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuator controls vibrations of the flexible structural beam. The State Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE) technique is used to provide a control action which uses sub-optimal control and system local stability search. The robustness of these two controllers is tested by sensitivity analysis to parametric uncertainties. Numerical simulations results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.