Modeling and control of smart structures with bonded piezoelectric sensors and actuators

Smart structure has become an increasingly common term describing a structure embedded or bonded with a large number of lightweight active electromechanical sensors and actuators. The authors consider the modeling and control issues related to smart structures bonded with piezoelectric sensors and actuators. They first apply Hamilton's principle to obtain a linearized equation of motion. The natural modes are then found by solving an eigenvalue problem. From the voltage input to current output, the transfer function is shown to be passive, which allows for any strictly passive feedback controller. Issues related to the design of the passive feedback controller in the presence of model non-idealities and performance augmentation with learning-based feedforward control are then discussed.