An Integrated, Optimization-Based Approach to the Design and Control of Large Space Structures.

This research was aimed at laying the groundwork for a long term project on the integrated, optimization-based design of large, flexible structures and their control systems. Research was carried out in four areas: (1) modeling the dynamic behavior of simple flexible structures; (2) development of a theory of nondifferentiable optimization algorithms for the solution of problems with max function type inequality constraints; (3) exploration of the use of optimization in optimization-based design of large, flexible structures and their control systems; and (4) interactive software for optimization-based control system design.