The problem of actuator and sensor placement in a flexible plate is revisited within the context of an intelligent control scheme. Instead of considering individual actuators and sensors, we consider groups of actuators and sensors that have the same capacity to address specific modes. The placement optimization procedure chooses actuators and sensors within a given group so that can collectively address a specific range of modal frequencies. Integrated into the control scheme is the ability to select, over a time interval of fixed length, a given group that can best address spatiotemporally varying disturbances in which the spatial distribution of disturbances changes with time. For the numerical studies on a thin aluminum plate, clamped on all sides and employing piezoceramic patches as collocated actuators/sensors, we consider four groups of PZT actuators/sensors wherein each actuator in each group is designed to have a high level of modal controllability with respect to a given modal shape. Incorporated into the above optimization is the influence of each PZT on the plate's modal shapes. The intelligent control then provides the switching scheme in which, at a given time instance, only one of the four groups is active with the remaining three being kept dormant in order to reduce power consumption.

Date Published: 27 March 2006
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6166, Smart Structures and Materials 2006: Modeling, Signal Processing, and Control, 61661H (27 March 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.660273

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6166:
Smart Structures and Materials 2006: Modeling, Signal Processing, and Control
Douglas K. Lindner, Editor(s)