A benchtop plant for evaluation of flexible structure control methodologies

Abstract

In this paper, a benchtop plant for evaluating control of flexible structures is presented. Key features of the benchtop plant include (1) rich dynamics in a simple structure (2) low cost (3) availability of state measurements, including motor and load position, motor speed, motor current (4) versatility in configuration, allowing a variety of loads, lightly damped vibration modes. Some algorithms that are suitable for the control of such a system are discussed and demonstrated on the system.