Reduced-order LQG control of a Timoshenko beam model

We present a computational approach for the construction of reduced-order controllers for the Timoshenko beam model. By means of a space discretization of the Timoshenko equations, we obtain a large-scale, finite-dimensional dynamical system, for which we compute an LQG controller for closed-loop stabilization. The solutions of the algebraic Riccati equations characterizing the LQG controller are then used to construct a balancing transformation which allows the dimensional reduction of the large-scale dynamic compensator. We present numerical tests assessing the stability and performance of the approach.