Synthesis of Robust Multivariable Controllers for Large Flexible Structures

Abstract

In this paper, the design of robust multivariable controllers for flexible structures with collocated actuators and sensors is considered. The method exploits the positive realness property of the flexible structure and involves a novel guidance for selecting the weighting matrices for the states and the control inputs, as wellas for the covariance matrices of the process and the measurement noise in an LQG approach. Depending on the choice of design parameters, the resultant full-order compensator is guaranteed to be either positive real or strictly positve real. The method is applied to the DLR flexible test structure to demonstrate its capability.