Modeling, Control, and Design of Flexible Structures: A Survey

Large structures used in space applications, are made flexible to reduce the high cost of lifting mass to orbit. These highly flexible structures will inevitably be vulnerable to dynamic excitations caused by the slewing/pointing maneuvers, thermal transients, operations of on-board coolers and generators, etc. Thus the aspects of modeling and control become extremely important for the safe and effective operation of large flexible structures (LFS’s). The theoretical, computational, and practical methodologies developed during the last decade along with the latest trends in this area are described. The research work addressing the aspects of model reduction, passive and active control, hierarchical/decentralized control, integrated structural and control design, optimal design, and sensor/actuator location selection problem for large flexible structures is discussed.