Control of the Elastic Motion of Lightweight Structures∗

We apply multivariable control techniques to control the elastic motion of lightweight multibody structures undergoing combined rigid and elastic motion. The elastic control action is implemented by means of segmented piezoelectric film actuators. We show that, by using piezoelectric actuators, one can accomplish input decoupling as well as true internal actuation. We also show that the overall control design can be broken into individual components, with each component resulting in a stable controller. This makes it much simpler to design and implement the control action.