AN ANALYSIS OF THE DESTABILIZING EFFECT OF DAISY CHAINED RATE-LIMITEDACTUATORS

The response of a rate-limited actuator will lag behind a rapidly chan ging command, This lag may destabilize the closed-loop system, When mu ltiple actuators are arranged in a daisy chain this effect can be sign ificantly worse, The cost of daisy chaining, in terms of lost stabilit y margin, is estimated analytically and numerically, A comparison of a simple daisy chain with a simple ''cooperative'' control selector sho ws that the daisy chain may cause as much as 30 degrees of additional phase lag.