Feedback control of flexible systems

Feedback control is developed for the class of flexible systents described by the generalized wave equation with damping. The control force distribution is provided by a number of point force actuators and the system displacements and/or their velocities are measured at various points. A feedback controller is developed for a finite number of modes of the flexible system and the controllability and observability conditions necessary for successful operation are displayed. The control and observation spillover due to the residual (uncontrolled) modes is examined and the combined effect of control and observation spillover is shown to lead to potential instabilities in the closed-loop system. Some remedies for spillover, including a straightforward phase-locked loop prefilter, are suggested to remove the instability mechanism. The concepts of this paper are illustrated by some numerical studies on the feedback control of a simply-supported Euler-Bernoulli beam with a single actuator and sensor.