A slewing control experiment for flexible structures

A hardware setup has been developed to study slewing control for flexible structures including a steel beam and a solar panel. The linear optimal terminal control law is used to design active controllers that are implemented in an analog computer. The objective of this experiment is to demonstrate and verify the dynamics and optimal terminal control laws as applied to flexible structures for large-angle maneuver. Actuation is provided by an electric motor while sensing is given by strain gages and angle potentiometers. Experimental measurements are compared with analytical predictions in terms of modal parameters of the system stability matrix, and sufficient agreement is achieved to validate the theory.