An Inertial Approach to Active Vibration-Isolation

This paper describes an innovative approach to the solution of the active vibration-isolation problem resulting from work performed on the Digital Active Processing Platform Effort (DAMPER)². While the approach traces its heritage to earlier work performed for the Central Inertial Guidance Test Facility on its Seismically Stable Platform (SSP)³, the salient difference between the DAMPER vibration-isolation technique and that of SSP lies in the method used to generate disturbance cancellation forces. While SSP relies on contact with the relatively large pier which underlies it for the production of these forces, DAMPER uses the reaction forces generated through the motion of considerably smaller inertial proof masses. As a result, the DAMPER vibration-isolation technique is applicable to a much wider variety of situations in which large masses are not immediately present. After first reviewing the basic vibration-isolation problem, the principles underlying the DAMPER solution are summarized. The paper concludes with a brief description of a DAMPER platform which has been actively isolated in all of its six degrees-of-freedom (DOF) using the inertial vibration-isolation technique discussed.