The problem of controlling a friction damper: a robust control approach

This paper examines different robust control approaches employed to tackle the problem of controlling a friction damper. A friction damper can be used for vibration reduction in different systems; the emphasis here is on an automotive application. The controllers described belong to the family of variable structure controllers (VSC), namely various types of sliding mode control (SMC) and switched state feedback (SSF) algorithms. The performance of the different controllers is compared via computer simulation and the pros and cons are examined. Finally an extension of the algorithm to the problem of controlling four independent friction damper is proposed.