The experimental computer control of a two-dimensional hyperbolic system

The system treated consists of a 5-foot gold-coated rubber membrane mounted on a circular cylindrical drum. Seven electrodes reside on a command surface located behind the membrane inside the drum, serving as capacitive sensors and electrostatic force actuators of transverse membrane deflection. The membrane is modeled as flat, isotropic, and uniformly tensioned. Controllers regulating membrane deflection are designed using aggregation and design procedures based on sensor and actuator influence functions. The resulting control laws are implemented on a minicomputer in two sets of experiments. The first set studies modal pole placement and direct regulation of simulated model noise. The second set investigates the indirect regulation of simulated noise in a residual mode via spillover at different synthesized spillover levels. The study shows that spillover can be made a beneficial source of damping in residual systems.<>