Application of Passivity Motivated Controller Design for a Nonlinear Flexible Pointing System

This paper presents a passivity based approach to the stabilization of a flexible beam and its application to a testbed at the Picatinny Arsenal. The basic control design consists of tuning an inner passive loop for the rigidbody response, synthesizing a passive output based on an observer and all the available outputs, and finally filtering the synthesized passive output by an optimal passive filter before closing the loop. Previous simulation and experimental experience in the CLaMS Laboratory at Rensselaer has shown the efficacy of this approach. Preliminary simulation results based on the Picatinny model are encouraging. Experimental validation on the physical testbed is currently planned.