Semi-active damping of drive systems

Drive systems as used in machinery and technical applications often suffer from insufficient system damping. In order to improve the damping characteristic, the method of semi-active control is proposed. Specific requirements associated with drive systems are pointed out and addressed in the course of this paper. Based on the classical sky-hook damping a novel semi-active control strategy, well suited for use in drive systems, is presented. The fundamental background is explained on a two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) drive model and stability is proven by means of the direct method of Lyapunov. Finally the control strategy is verified on an experimental test bench and proof for the effectiveness and applicability of this method is given.