Tutorial on input sharping/time delay control of maneuvering flexible structures

Precise position control and rapid rest-to-rest motion is the desired objective in a variety of applications. The desire for reducing the maneuver time requires reducing the inertia of the structure which subsequently results in low frequency dynamics. The requirement of precise position control implies that the residual vibration of the structure should be zero or near zero. This paper presents techniques to shape the input to the system so as to minimize the residual vibration. A second class of problems which included design of input profiles for systems with rigid-body modes driven by actuators with finite control authority, is also presented. The common thread which connects all the techniques presented in this paper is related to the design of controllers which are robust to modeling uncertainties. The proposed techniques are illustrated by simulations and experiments.