Flexible Beam Control Using an Adaptive Truss

Adaptive truss structures have a multitude of potential spacecraft applications including vibration suppression, articulation, payload isolation, tracking and pointing, advanced manipultors, docking mechanisms, and deployable trusses. To demonstrate the feasibility of adaptive trusses for vibration suppression, a 12-foot long beam is attached to a single cell of an adaptive truss which has three active battens. With the base of the adaptive truss attached to the laboratory frame, the measured strain of the vibrating beam show the adaptive truss to be very effective in suppressing vibration when subjected to initial conditions. Control is accomplished va a PC/XT computer that implements an LQR designed control law.