Robust Model Reference Vibration Control of a Flexible Beam Using Piezoceramic Patches

This paper presents a novel approach to active vibration control of flexible beams using piezoceramic smart materials. This approach employs a robust model reference controller which has the ability to handle model uncertainties. Asymptotic stability of the closed loop system is guaranteed as proved by the Lyapunov´s direct method. To demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method, experiments, including varying the mass of the flexible beams, are conducted. Experiments show that the robust model reference control achieves rapid vibration suppression even in the presence of uncertain model parameters