H∞ control synthesis for a flexible structure

This paper investigates the feasibility of an H_∞ controller for a large flexible structure with the actuator and sensor are located at the same spatial point. The controller is required to provide good disturbance rejection as well as prove robust to unmodelled dynamics of the system. Incorporating the dynamics of the actuator and modeling the structure as an eighth order linear model, a discrete time controller is synthesized with constraints on the control magnitude. Using suitable reduction techniques, the controller order is reduced to facilitate implementation