Fuzzy chip control of MDOF structural systems

The design of a fuzzy controller usually requires a lot of fine tuning work in order to guarantee proper operation under all possible circumstances. Moreover, in civil engineering applications this task can be even more complex, due to the special care that should be used to avoid possible costly damages to the specimen structures under test. In this paper, a new design method is outlined which makes lengthy numerical simulations unnecessary and allows real-time testing of the fuzzy controller by means of an electronic emulation board. First, the design process is described for the general multi-degree-of-freedom case. Next, an example is given which shows the application of the emulator in the simpler single-degree-of-freedom case. Finally, the results obtained with the emulator are verified against those achieved with the real MDOF test structure.