Disturbance model for control/structure optimization with full statefeedback

This paper deals with a technique for the integrated optimization of structure and control in the design of flexible spacecraft and other flexible systems. This current approach uses the concept of response to dynamic constraints to establish tradeoffs between control energy and structural mass. This approach gives a concise variational methodology to total system optimization and eliminates the need to specify rather arbitrary tradeoffs between control energy and structural mass. Results give an explicit dependency between structural stiffness (hence mass), disturbance magnitude, control energy available, and deflection constraints. For the special case of linear controls and quadratic constraints the problem reduces to a standard linear quadratic regulator problem plus a structure optimization. The method is general, however, and can be extended to more general problems such as output feedback, nonlinear controls, and slew optimization.