A new approach to shock isolation and vibration suppression using a resetable actuator

A novel low power control technique along with a new class of actuators is developed for shock isolation and control of structural vibrations. In cont rast to other techniques, including conventional viscous or rate damping, t he force produced by the actuator has no velocity dependence. Several exper imental, analytical, and simulation results are presented in support of thi s new, semi-active technique for structural control. The basic approach is to manipulate the system stiffness through the use of resetable actuators. With the proposed control approach, the actuator behaves like a linear spri ng. However, at appropriate times, the effective unstretched length of the actuator is changed--or reset--to extract energy from the vibrating structu re. Experimental validation of the actuator model, analytical results on st ability and actuator-placement, and simulation results for earthquake appli cations are presented.