A comparative study on distributed active damping of flexible systems

As systems become more lightweight, to satisfy inertia and size requirements, vibration becomes a prominent factor in their dynamics. This vibration is undesirable and various suppression methods exist such as passive, semi-active, and active. In this thesis, active control methods are explored for this purpose. The present technology utilizes under-actuation for suppression of multiple modes, which has a sub-optimal performance. This work provides a comparative study on the different vibration suppression algorithms, which would aid in developing a distributed placement of actuators (over-actuation) and sensors. The main aim is to achieve multi-mode suppression systems and improve collocation for higher-order modes which facilitates accurate control of the end-effector of a system. A comparison is drawn between point actuation and over-actuation in terms of energy consumption, amount of damping, and precision. Also, a new control strategy is developed to circumvent the limitations posed by the present control strategies such as low frequency spillover and steady-state error. The benefits in terms of damping and shortcomings are presented based on the conclusion drawn
Mechanical Engineering