Concurrent Design of Vibration Absorbers and Input Shapers

Abstract

Systems with flexible dynamics often vibrate due to external disturbances, as well as from changes in the reference command. Feedback control is an obvious choice to deal with these vibrations, but in many cases, it is insufficient or difficult to implement. A technique that does not rely on high performance feedback control is presented here. It utilizes a combination of vibration absorbers and input shapers. Vibration absorbers have been used extensively to reduce vibration from sinusoidal disturbances, but they can also be implemented to reduce the response from transient functions. Input shaping has proven beneficial for reducing vibration that is caused by changes in the reference command. However, input shaping does not deal with vibration excited by external disturbances. In this paper, vibration absorbers and input shapers are designed sequentially and concurrently to reduce vibration from both the reference command and from external disturbances. The usefulness of this approach is demonstrated through computer simulations and experimental results.