STABILIZATION OF A DEPLOYABLE FLEXIBLE STRUCTURE

This paper deals with stability and stabilization of a deployable flex ible beam. It is proved that the motion of the structure is basically stable in station-keeping phase and deploying phase and unstable in re tracting phase, if there is no control for it. Boundary controllers ar e proposed for the structure, which may dissipate the unwanted vibrati on and rotation energy of the structure, thus stabilize the structure during all the motion phases. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.