Stable robust control of flexible structure systems

Abstract

In this paper, stable robust control is investigated for a class of flexible structure systems. The systems are characterized by coupled ordinary and partial differential equations with non-homogeneous boundary conditions. By selecting certain sliding surface, the convergence of system's motion on the surface as t → ∞ provides additional homogeneous boundary conditions, which subsequently makes the boundary value problems solvable using the traditional variable separation method. Adaptive control and variable structure control techniques are utilized to solve the problem. It is shown that the overall systems stability can be achieved and the solution to the boundary value problem is trivial which implies that the system will finally settle at the equilibrium.