Active vibration suppression of a flexible beam with piezoceramic patches using robust model reference control

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to active vibration suppression of a flexible beam with piezoceramic sensor and actuator. This approach employs a robust model reference controller which has the ability to handle model uncertainties. The proposed controller ensures effective active vibration suppression of the flexible beam by dramatically increasing its damping. Asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed as proved by Lyapunov's direct method. To demonstrate the controller's effectiveness in active vibration control and its robustness to model uncertainties, experiments, including varying the mass of the flexible beams, are conducted. Experiments show that the robust model reference control achieves rapid vibration suppression even in the presence of uncertain model parameters. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)