Actuator placement for minimum force modal control of continuous faceplate deformable mirrors

A mechanically motivated strategy for determining actuator locations for minimum force modal control of continuous faceplate deformable mirrors in adaptive optics systems is proposed. It is shown that numerically or analytically derived eigenmodes of deformable mirrors can be used to determine optimal positions for a limited number of actuators. The actuators considered in this framework may either be of displacement type or of force type. Moreover, the presented methodology can be adapted to momentum actuators.