Experimental verification of an analytical bound H∞ norm collocated control approach

The objective of this paper is to provide an experimental verification of a new H-infinity control scheme on a flexible beam which uses a collocated PZT actuator/sensor pair. We use an analytical bound approach that provides an explicit expression of an upper bound on the H-infinity norm of the closed-loop system and an explicit parametrization of the corresponding output feedback control gains. The method has great computational advantages for large scale structural systems where the solution of H-infinity optimization problems using standard tools could be computationally prohibitive. Both experimental and numerical results are presented that provide a comparison of the performance and the computational requirements on the controller design using the standard H-infinity formulation and the proposed analytical bound approach.