Compact Active Vibration Control System

NASA Langley Research Center has developed a point sensor and piezoelectric actuator system to actively sense and reduce vibrations in flexible structures. The system uses a directional piezoelectric actuator that couples to an underlying structure like four point forces acting normal to the structure. Four miniature accelerometers are located coincident with the piezoelectric point forces to create a matched actuator/sensor pair. This matched pair enables feedback control to be implemented using simple, robust, negative feedback that requires no knowledge of the dynamics of the structure, and can be implemented using analog electronics. When attached to a flexible structure, this active damping system can reduce vibrations in a variety of applications. Compared to other systems, this approach offers good performance with a simple and compact control system.