AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF FUZZY CONTROL OF A FLEXIBLE ROD MECHANISM

The non-linear nature of very high speed, flexible rod mechanisms has been previously confirmed, both experimentally and analytically in ref erence [1]. Therefore, effective control system design for flexible me chanisms operating at very high speeds must consider the non-lineariti es when designing a controller for very high speeds. Active control vi a fuzzy logic is assessed as a means to suppress the elastic transvers e bending vibration of a flexible rod of a slider crank mechanism. Sev eral pairs of piezoelectric elements are used to provide the control a ction. Sensor output of deflection is fed to the fuzzy controller, whi ch determines the voltage input to the actuators. A three mode approxi mation is used in the simulation study. Computer simulation shows that fuzzy control can be used to suppress bending vibrations at high spee ds, and even at speeds when the uncontrolled response would be unstabl e. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.