Design of intelligent control strategies using a magnetorheological damper for span structure

This paper focuses on the design of an intelligent control system. The used techniques are based on Neuro Fuzzy approaches applied to a magnetorheological damper in order to reduce the vibrations over footbridges; it has been applied to the Science Museum Footbridge of Valladolid, particularly. A model of the footbridge and of the damper has been built using different simulation tools, and a successful comparison with the real footbridge and the real damper has been carried out. This simulated model has allowed the reproduction of the behaviour of the footbridge and damper when a pedestrian walks across the footbridge. Once it is determined that the simulation results are similar to real data, the control system is introduced into the model. In this sense, different strategies based on Neuro Fuzzy systems have been studied. In fact, an ANFIS (Artificial Neuro Fuzzy Inference System) method has also been used, in addition to an alternative Neuro Fuzzy approach. Several trials have been carried out, using both techniques, obtaining satisfactory results after using these techniques.