Simultaneous optimization of structure and control for vibration suppression

A method of simultaneous optimization of structure and control using mixed H-2 and H-infinity norms of the transfer function as the objective function is proposed and the modeling and formulation of simultaneous optimization problems associated with this approach are discussed in this paper. Simulta neous optimization is realized by iteratively executing structural optimiza tion and controller optimization. Both serial and parallel approaches to co mbine structural optimization and controller optimization are investigated They are applied to the simultaneous optimization of the cross-sectional pa rameters of a spring-supported beam and the parameters of the controller us ed to actively suppress the vibration of the beam. The performance of both displacement output and control input is improved significantly after simul taneous optimization. The simulation results show the great potential advan tages of simultaneous optimization over traditional design methods and the effectiveness of the proposed approach.