Advantages of Slewing an Active Structure

The slewing control of an active flexible structure is considered by examin ing the equations of motion of an integrated actuator/structure system containing both the actuator and structure dynamics. These equations are derived using a Hamiltonian ap proach. The system under consideration is a slewing flexible structure, a thin aluminum beam, torque driven by an armature controlled DC electric motor and actuated by a piece- wise distributed piezoceramic actuator. An improvement in performance is gained by 1) including the effects of motor actuator and beam dynamic interaction and 2) using a piezo electric device, layered on the structure, for direct vibration suppression of the structural dynamics. A comparison is made using simulations, to point out the advantages of slewing an active structure versus slewing a passive structure. This presents a multi input slewing control problem which is implemented using a standard linear quadratic regulator control design.