Reduced order compensator design for an experimental large flexible structure

A low order controller is designed for the TRW experimental truss structure described in [20]. The objective is to achieve good disturbance attenuation, while at the same time preserving good stability margin and other robustness properties. The method used as a first cut is LQG with frequency dependent weights and colored noises. Controller reduction is accomplished through the open-loop balancing scheme of Moore applied to the full order compensator. A typical design result shows that it is possible to obtain a very low order design which meets the above specification.