Proximal time-optimal control of flexible systems made robust though feedback

The paper presents a new robust acceleration limited time-optimal law for flexible system control by combining the well known open loop time-optimal solution and wave-based control. Using the time optimal solution a new launch wave input to the wave based controller is designed, allowing it to recreate the time optimal solution when the system model is exactly known. If modelling errors are present, or a real actuator is used, the residual vibrations which normally remain when using the time optimal solution alone are quickly suppressed, due to the additional robustness provided by the wave based controller. A proximal time optimal response is still achieved. A robustness study is undertaken and shows significant improvements can be achieved using wave based control in conjunction with the time optimal solution.