Robust control of flexible structures against structural damage

This paper deals with the vibration suppression control problem of flexible structures against potential damage. The controller is required not only to robustly stabilize the structure but to satisfactorily suppress the vibration under all predicted damages that might occur in the 20-bay truss structure under study. The damage to the flexible structure we consider here is represented by the various stiffness losses of predetermined elements. The structure with the predicted damages is modeled as an interval transfer function. The controller design is based on the μ-synthesis in conjunction with the extremal properties of interval systems. Unlike conventional μ-synthesis, the technique enables one to use a fixed-size uncertainty block (4 real blocks for SISO case) regardless of the number of parameters, that results in a faster, reliable and simple synthesis procedure