Vibration Suppression Through Parametric Control: A General Framework

This paper considers a general framework for application to vibration suppression. The approach is a variation of the so called parametric control technique, in which specific parameters of the system - such as stiffness - are manipulated directly. It is shown that the framework discussed here is applicable to a variety of inexpensive, simple and reliable hardware configurations. For example, a new class of control algorithms are developed for an inexpensive active truss element, including a decentralized switching control law. The control algorithms developed here are insensitive to changes in structural parameters such as mass or stiffness. Analytical models are presented along with stability analysis, simulation and experimental results.