Intelligent identification and control of a flexible beam

Abstract

High demands in weight reduction have been observed in many areas. There are many benefits with weight reduction including reducing cost, increase efficiency and pushing the technology beyond the limit. The weight reduction requires lighter materials to be used, therefore less stiff structures are utilized. The less stiff the structure, the more flexible and easier it is to vibrate. The vibration produced by these types of structures may cause a lot of problems, including fatigue failure, resonance failure, defects, and even life. This project studies a type of structure configuration; a flexible cantilever beam. The objectives of this project are to identify the model and to develop the controller for the flexible beam. Previous studies have shown various methods are suitable to identify the system, these include the ones considered in this project; the parametric modelling using Recursive Least Square, as well as the nonparametric modelling using Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network. An experimental rig of flexible cantilever beam is developed for this project to obtain the input data for the system identification. A Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller is developed utilizing both system models identified, using automatic and heuristic tunings techniques within MATLAB environment. The performance developed by the controller is verified through simulations in MATLAB Simulink. The controller is proven to be stable with significant vibration suppression of the flexible beam.