45

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY.VOL. 2, NO. 1, MARCH 1994

TABLEIll
EXPERIMENTAL
VALUESFOR LOOPSOF DIFFERENT
SPEEDRATIOS
a = 0.1

Primaryloop
closed
0.30
1.97

tu2
ku2

primaryloop
open
0.30
1.97

= 0.8

lWP
closed
2.34
2.03

loop
open

2.42
1.97

and the ultimate parameters obtained are then used to auto-tune the
PUPID controller for the primary loop. The ratio of the ultimate
frequencies obtained in these two steps indicates the ratio of the
speeds of the loops and hence can be used to confirm the effectiveness
of cascade control. Subsequent re-tuning of either controller, if
required,can be done entirely in closed loop.
RWERENCES

G. Stephanopoulos, Chemical Process Conml: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1984.
P. W. Munill, Application Concepts Process Control. RTP, North

Carolina: I.S.A., 1988.

E. H. Bristol, Pattern Recognition: An alternativeto Parameter Identification in Adaptive Control, Automatica, vol. 13, pp. 197-202, 1977.
C. C. Hang and K. K. Sin, On-line Auto-Tuning of PID controllers
based on Cross Correlation, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. E-38, no.
6, pp. 428-437, Dec. 1991.
K. J. Astrijm and T.Hagglund, Automatic Tuning of Simple Regulators, Proc. IFAC 9th World Congress, Budapest, Hungary, 1984.
K.J. Astrom and T. HAgglund,A u t o m i c Tuning PID Controllers. RTP,
North Carolina: I.S.A., 1988.
M. X. Li, P. M. Bmijn and H. B. Verbruggen. Thing of Cascade
PID controller with Fuzzy Inference, to be published in Asia-Pacific
0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

a5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Fig. 6. Plot of

against a.

In. bfE4SUREMENT OF RELATIVE SPEEDS OF PROCESS LOOPS

One of the design considerations in cascade control is deciding on
the most advantageous secondary variable [2].One of the goals is to
get the secondary loop as fast as possible. The higher the speed of
the secondary loop relative to the primary loop, the more effective
is the cascade system in rejecting disturbances occurring within the
secondary loop process. As such it is useful to check the speed ratio
between the two loops at commissioning to confirm the effectiveness
of the cascade system. It turns out that relay feedback auto-tuning of
cascade loops can provide the relative speeds of the loops involved.
The speed of the secondary loop is indicated by the ultimate
. frequency wUp obtained when tuning the loop with the primary loop
on manual. Similarly wul tells us the speed of the primary loop with
is
the secondary loop taken into consideration.As such the ratio
useful in providing inf6rmation on the relative speeds of the loops.
The procedure needed to measure this ratio can be made part of the
tuning procedure detailed in section II.
Fig. 6 plots the ratio
,obtained by relay feedback, for a =
0.1 to CY = 1.0 for the model in (5). The theoretical values are
shown alongside the values obtained from relay feedback and they
are in fairly close agreement. For (Y = 0.1, the ratio 3 = 18.5
indicating accurately that the secondary loop is much faster than the
= 3.1, about the minimum
primary loop. At CY = 0.8 the ratio
recommended for effective cascade control [2].

Engineering Journal.
J. G. Ziegler and N. B. Nichols, Optimum settings for automatic
controllers, Trans. ASME, vol. 64, pp. 759-768, 1942..
C. C. Hang, K.J. Astrijm and W.K.Ho, Refinements of the ZieglerNichols tuning formula, IEE Proc. D, Control Theory and Application,

vol. 138, no. 2, pp. 111-118, 1991.

Y.Z. Tsypkin, Relay Control Systems (translated from Russian). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Six Degree-of-Freedom Active Vibration

Control Using the Stewart Platforms
Z. Jason Geng and Leonard S. Haynes

Abstract-Multiple degree-of-freedom (DOF) vibration control systems

are essential for precision control of a wide range of space-born structures
as well as eartb-based systems. This paper s t d i e s the design and control
problems of a class of multiple DOF vibration isolation systems Using
the concept of a Stewart trpss and Stewart platform mechanism. A
novel geometric arrangement of a Stewart Platform, called the Cubic
Configuration is developed and used. A new design and analysis of
actuators employing magnetostrictive material Terfend-D is presented.
Robust adaptive iUter algorithms for active vibration control are formulated. Prototype hardware for a six degree-of-freedom active vibration
isolation system with the cubic configuration of the Stewart Platform
has been implemented and tested. About 30 dB of vibration attenuation
is achieved in real-time experiments.

IV. CONCLUSION
A method is presented here to tune controllers in cascade loops.

It involves the use of on-off relays to obtain the ultimate gains and
frequencies of the loops when they undergo limit cycle oscillation.
The secondary loop is put on relay feedback first and a P or PI
controller is auto-tuned using established tuning rules. The primary
loop is then placed on relay feedback with the secondary loop closed

I.

INTRODUCTION

Future space structure will be made of lightweight and lightly

damped materials. Truss-type structures are typically considered
for most space applications since they are efficient and amenable
Manuscript received October 19, 1992;revised November 11, 1992. Paper
was recommended by Associate Editor Bo Egardt. The research for this paper
was sponsored by the National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA)
under &ant NAS7-1134, and NAS7-1198.
The authors are with Intelligent Automation, Inc., Rockville, MD.
IEEE Log Number 9215712.

1063-6536/94$04.00 0 1994 EEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONSON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 2, NO. 1, MARCH 1994

to in-space assembly. However, to meet stringent accuracy and

p e r f o m m e requirements, vibrations inherent to a flexible structure or generated by on-board disturbance sotmes will have to
be controlled using passive damping materials or active vibration
control techniques. The requirements for vibration control in space
applications may be classified into two levels: vibration isolation
at a component level, and structural vibration suppression at a
system level. In component level isolation, a vibration isolation
device provides articulationwhile reducing the vibration transmission
between the vibration source and the desired vibration-freeparts of a
system, from which the vibration disturbance should be mini!.
In system level vibration control, the active vibration control devices
4
or active elements exert active control forces such that the structural
Fig. 1. A stewart platfom.
vibration modes are suppressed in a specific frequency range. Both
types of applications mentioned above are refereed to as active
the range of kHz. Force capability required by vibration control
vibration control (AVC) in this paper.
To achieve active vibration control, adaptive structrue concepts devices varies in different applications. For our subject application
have been proposed [2], 171. An adaptive s t r u m is defined as a the each actuator has to be able to generate up to hundreds of pound
structural system whose geometricalconfigurationand inherent struc- force. Special considerations must be made to accommodate these
tural characteristicscan be changed in order to adapt to environmental requirements to a successful active vibration control system design.
This paper is organized as the following: In section U, we will
changes or to meet mission requirements. An adaptive structure can
be formed through the use of electronicallycontrolled active elements present the Stewart truss structure concept, as well as a novel
consisting of actuators and sensors, so that they function as normal geometric configuration of a Stewart platform which, we believe,
load carrying members and simultaneoulsy provide structural control is an optimal configuration for vibration control applications. This
cubic configuration, resulting in a concise kinematics and dynamic
and adaptation capabilities.
In a generic scenario of active vibration isolation applications, relationship, has many advvtages over conventional configurations
vibration in a s t r u m should be characterized as a multiple degree- in mechanical structure and control system designs. We will discuss
of-freedom (DO0 phenomenon. For instance, it may have both in section III our research efforts on building magnetostrictivelinear
non-zero translation components (along X , Y, 2 axces) as well as actuators using Terfenol-D material. The mechanical designs and
rotational components (Roll, Pitch, Yaw). Therefore, the issue of how modeling of the actuator are detailed. Our 6-DOF active vibration
to arrange active elements of an adaptive structrue in an optimal damping system is based on a Stewart platform mechanism which
manner to perform multiple DOF vibration isolation tasks needed to incorporates six Terfenol-D actuators. Section IV will be devoted to a
be addressed, both at system level and at component level. Due to the new robust adaptive filter algorithm for active vibration control. Two
complexity of the multiple DOF system dynamics and control design, Least Mean Square (LMS) filters are adopted to perform identification
few research activities of multiple DOF active vibration isolation and control simultaneously, therefore a robustness of active control
performance is achieved against parameters changes and disturbance.
systems have been reported.
Multiple DOF mechanical vibration isolation needs multiple DOF The apparatus and results of real-time experiments of our active
mechanisms for effective attenuation. Among key issues involved in control system prototype are discussed in section V.
multiple DOF active vibration isolation problems are:
U. THE STEWART
TRUSS AND THE CUBICCONFIGURATION
OF
(1) Optimal geometry for the mechanism to generate multiple
A STEWARTPLATFORM
FOR A
m VIBRATION
CONTROL
DOF anti-vibration forces;
(2) Development of active elements (actuators);
A. The Stewart Truss Structure
(3) Control system design and implementation.
This papex will present our recent work aiming to address these
We have proposed a concept of a Stewart truss structure (Figure
issues. We have studied the concept of a Stewart Platform to deal 2) as a design for an active member arrangement in active vibration
with multiple DOF vibration isolation problems of precision control control applications.In a Stewart truss structure, each bay of the truss
for space-borne structures as well as earth-based systems. Stewart is configured as a Stewart platform. If all six elements on one bay of
Platform mechanisms have been investigated for many years as a six the truss are replaced by active elements equipped with sensors and
DOF motion generators and six DOF parallel link manipulators [l], actuators, this bay of the truss becomes an actively controlled Stewart
[3], [6]. A typical Stewart Platform, as shown in Figure 1, consists platform. The platform can prevent structural vibrations generated by
of six variable-length actuators connecting a mobile plate to a base the structure connected to one side of the platform from propagating
plate. As the lengths of the actuators change, the mobile plate of the to the structure COMeCted on the other side of the platform. At a
platform is able to move in all six DOF with respect to the base plate. component level, a Stewart platform can be used as an active mount
Stewart platform type of 6-DOF mechanism distinguish themselves for quiet components and as an isolation device for disturbance
from other multiple DOF motion generators in that all actuators are sources.
linear motion actuator. The simplicity and the 6-DOF positioning
Stewart platforms have several features which make them particcapability of a Stewart platform provides a germane mechanism for ularly attractive for active vibration control. They use the minimum
handing multiple DOF motion control applications.
number of linear actuators possible to provide 6 DOF motion, which
The vibration control application of a Stewart platform is quite is widely used for flight simulators and 6 DOF robot manipulators
different from using a Stewart platform as a flight simulator or as [l] [3] [6]. For space applications they have inherent capability
a multiple DOF parallel link manipulator. The stroke of actuators of providing articulation between subsystems as well as vibration
required for damping structural vibration is of the order of magnitude isolation with the same mechanical system. Consequently there are
of microns, and the frequency response performance should achieve significant savings in system complexity and weight, as well as a

41

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 2, NO. 1, MARCH 1994

Fig. 4. Schematic of IAIs terfenol-d actuator design.

I1

Fig. 5. The robust adaptive vibration control system.

Fig. 3.

Cubic configuration of a stewart platform.

reduction in the requirements for associated modeling efforts. Stewart

platforms can be designed to carry large loads and remain stable in
the unpowered configuration. These features are useful in solving
problems related to testing a space structure in a gravity environment.
The other important property of a Stewart platform for vibration
control applications is that, neglecting the gravity and inertial load
of actuators, all forces transmitted between the mobile plate and the
base plate are totally axial forces of actuators. This means that if
the axial forces can be measured and eliminated, all the forces and
hence all of the vibration created by these forces can be eliminated.
This is certainly not true of a conventional truss structure where
the forces at the connection nodes include components in all six

DOF.
B. The Cubic Conjguration
Although Stewart platforms have unique advantages over conventional active vibration control structures, the kinematics and dynamic
behavior of a Stewart platform is, in general, quite complex. The
primary difficulty with a general Stewart Platform is that motions
along different axes are strongly coupled and a motion in any
Cartesian direction requires motion of all of the legs, resulting in
mathematical complexity in control system design. As a result of
our study, we have discovered a cubic configuration of a Stewart
Platform which, for vibration control applications, eliminates much
of this problem.
There are an infinite number of possible geometric configurations
of a Stewart platform, depending upon the selection of the positions
of attachment points between actuators and plates, the physical size
of the mobile and base plate, as well as the range of actuator
displacement. Different configurations display different kinematics
relationships and dynamic behaviors. For example, in certain configurations, the coupling effects between individual actuators can
significantly degrade control performance, and it is even possible for

Fig. 6. IAIs prototype of

isolation system.

stewart platform based six DOF vibration

a structure to become singular, where control becomes theoretically

impossible. On the other hand, by tailoring the configuration of a
Stewart platform, one can minimize the mechanical design effort and
simplify control system design and implementation.
An optimal selection of the nominal configuration for a Stewart
platform based structure is especially important in active vibration
control applications, since the displacement range of actuators are
usually very small comparing with the dimension of the structure. The
geometry of a structure basically stays at the nominal configuration
with only small magnitude of change generated by actuators control
action. Therefore the nominal configuration will essentially define the
kinematics relationship between actuators and structure response.
Our first effort in this study was to investigate all the options available and to select an optimal configuration for the active vibration
control. The following characteristics must be optimized:
(1) Uniformity in control capability in all directions;
(2) Uniformity in stiffness in all directions;
(3) Minimum cross coupling force effect among actuators;
(4) Facilitate collocated sensor-actuator control system design;
( 5 ) Simple kinematics relationships;
(6) Simple dynamic analysis, and
(7) Simple mechanical design.

4s

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY,VOL. 2, NO. 1, MARCH I994

.I

We have developed a nominal configuration of a Stewart platform

which we call the cubic configuration, as illustrated in figure 3.
As the name cubic configurationsuggests, the configuration stems
from the vertex arrangement of a cube. Consider a cube with edge
length L. Eight comers of the cube shown in figure 3 are named
as Ao, A12, A34, -456, BO,B16, B23, and B45. Three vertex points
A12, A34, and A 5 6 , determine a plane as shown in the figure light gray
area, and points B16, B23, and B45 form a second plane as shown
in the figure dark gray area. These two planes then become the base
and mobile plates of our cubic Stewart platform. Notice that these
two plates are in parallel. The connection between the mobile and
base plates consists of the six legs aligning with correspondingedges
of the cube, labeled LI, Lz, . ,L6 in the figure. The attachment
points of these legs to the plates are the vertexes A12, A34, and
A56 on the mobile plate, and B16, B23, and B45 on the base plate.
A mobile plate containing attachment points Alz, ,434, and A56,
a base plate containing attachment point B16, B23, and B45 and
actuators L1, L z , . - .,L6 comprise our cubic configuration of the
Stewart platform.
The cubic configuration of a Stewart platform has several unique
features which are attractive to active vibration control applications.
Using the cubic configuration as the nominal configuration of an
multiple DOF active vibration control device, the system will gain
the advantages of:
(1) The adjacent pairs of legs are orthogonal to each other,
resulting in the unique feature of decoupled control action
in three translational motion directions X,Y, and 2. The
orthogonality of actuators guarantees that the motion of the

mobile plate in X, Y, and 2 can be controlled independently

by the pair of actuators which define that direction, without
the involvement of the other four actuators.
(2) The attachment points of each pair of actuatorsto both the base
and mobile plates are placed symmetrically, and the mobile
and base plates are in parallel each other, providing an simple
mechanical interface to host structures;
(3) All the nominal length of the legs are equal, which greatly
simplifies the actuator and sensor mounts design. All six
actuators plus the associated mounts, flex joints, and sensor
locations can be chosen identically.
(4) The motion sensors (which in our case are the accelerometers)
are mounted aligning with their corresponding axis of actuators. The output signal of a sensor from a sensor-actuatorpair
reflexes only the motion along the axis of the actuator, due to
the fact that adjacent leg axis is orthogonal. One application of
this feature is that it facilitates the utilization of SISO control
algorithm for multiple DOF active vibration control problem.
( 5 ) The cubic configuration has maximum uniformity of control
authority in all directions, assuming that all legs has the same
maximum force capability. A brief proof of this feature is
provided in Appendix I. The control authority is the maximum
control force that can be applied along certain direction. The
uniformity of control authority is defined as the ratio of
minimum control authority over maximum control authority
of the structure in all possible directions. The maximum
uniformity of control authority provides uniformly behaved
control system in all directions.
(6) The orthogonality of the cubic configuration simplifies the
kinematics relationship between the motion of each actuator
and that of the mobile plate. Generally speaking, the position
and orientation of the mobile plate, denoted by a six element
vector X, can be expressed as a function of the actuator
length vector L by a nonlinear equation. Infinitesimally, the
differential relationship between X and L is described by a
6 x 6 Motion Jacobian matrix:

d L = J-ldX

(2.1)

where d X represents a mobile plate displacement and d L represents

the corresponding actuator length displacement. The Jacobian matrix
also describes the relationship between force vector at the mobile
plate and the forces applied by six actuators:

f = JTF

(2.2)

A Jacobian matrix of a Stewart platform is a 6 by 6 matrix with

elements as nonlinear functions of the mobile plate position and orientation. In general, none of the 36 terms are zero,meaning any change
in any leg affects motions in all six degrees of freedom. However,
the cubic configuration we have invented for six degree of freedom
vibration control applications causes a very significant simplification
in the Jacobian matrix, yielding a corresponding simplification in
control.
Since in a cubic configuration all leg has equal length, i.e. lLil =
L , i = 1 , 2 . . ,6, the coordinates of the leg connecting points in the
xyz coordinate system (see Figure 3) are therefore:

The inverse of the Jacobian matrix can be found through the observation of the relationship between the force vector at the mobile

BEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 2, NO. 1, MARCH 1994

plate and the forces applied by six actuators, and expressed as the
following:
10 1 0

1 0 0

0
2L/3

0 1 0

-L/3

-2L/3
0

?;? 1

c;1

The Jacobian matrix of the cubic configuration is much simpler

than that of a general configuration. The simplicity of the Jacobian
results in easily predictable behavior of the system. It also simplifies
the analysis of system dynamics which directly results in increased
computational efficiency of control.
It should be noted that if the platform moves significant distances
from its nominal cubic configuration, then adjacent pairs of legs will
become non-orthogonal and some of the above mentioned features
will no longer hold. However, the effect of this non-orthogonality
will be small in the case of active vibration control where the
stroke of an actuator is much smaller than the leg length. As can
be seen, the cubic configuration has many advantages over the
conventional configuration with respect to kinematics relationships,
dynamic modeling, and mechanical design.
nI. DESIGNAND IMPLEMENTATION OF LONG STROKE,HIGH
FORCEAND HIGHBANDWIDTHTERFENOL-D
LINEARACTUATORS
Due to the special requirements of space applications, vibration
control actuators should be simple, reliable, and have a high
to-weight ratio as well as a large amplitude of motion. Existing
tromagnetic, pneumatic, or hydraulic actuators and their associated
driving and supporting structures are heavy or bulky compared to the
amount of work to be
While incremental improvements
are continually made to such actuators, the
themselves
are mature, and it is not realistic to expect significant improvements
which depend upon the same basic electromagnetic, pneumatic, or
hydraulic -principles.
Consequently, researchers have attempted to develop improved
actuators by exploiting new materials. Such materials include shape
memory alloys and polymers, piezoelectric ceramics and polymers,
magnetostrictive materials, and various mechanochemical gels and
polymers.
Piezoelectric actuators have attracted considerable interest in the
active vibration control community, because they are simple, reliable,
compact and light weight. Piezoelectric actuators have a very broad
useful bandwidth, and their power consumption is not large. Their
mechanical properties can be tailored to particular applications.
However the low stroke capability of these materials is a concem.
A promising actuator employs the magnetostrictive alloy TerfenolD. We developed a new form of a Terfenol-D actuator and have
fabricated and used six of the designed actuators in our study for
active vibration control. Terfenol-D can achieve accurate linear or
oscillatory motion in response to a magnetic field generated by a low
voltage electric current. In addition to achieving the largest strain
and stroke of any commercially available material, Terfenol-D driven
actuators offers relatively high force and microsecond response times.
The magnetostrictive properties of nickel and nickel alloys were
discovered in the 1840's. In the 1970's, researches at the US
Naval Surface Weapons Center developed magnetostrictive alloys of
terbium (Tb), dysprosium(Dy), and iron (Fe), which exhibited strain
50 times as large as nickel alloys and 10 times as large as piezoelectric
ceramics. They named this material Terfenol-D. Young's Modulus of
Terfenol-D is moderately high (2.5 -3.5 x lo1' N/m2), which allows

49

for high force generation and the high energy density, which makes
Terfenol-D devices quite compact [4].
Several version of Terfenol-D actuators have been built by a few
companies, but the maximum linear displacement has been limited to
f 6 3 . 6 microns (f2.5 thousands of an inch). We decided, at the outset
of this effort, to attempt to build a Terfenol-D actuator which had
greater displacement. Our goal was f 1 2 7 micron ( f 5 thousandths
of an inch). Another goal was to implement an actuator which had
both a flux monitoring capability and and a direct strain measuring
capability. This was not available from any known commercial source
of Terfenol actuators. Our Terfenol-D actuator design, as shown in
Figure 4, incorporates an instrumented Terfenol-D rod, an excitation
coil to provide the magnetic driving field, a permanent magnet
assembly to provide a magnetic bias field, and a mechanical pre-load
mechanism.
The instrumented Terfenol-D element we used has a diameter
of 0.00635 m. (1/4 inch), and is approximately 0.1524 m. (6 in.)
long. The instrumentation we developed consists of a number of flux
pickup coils and strain gauges. The flux pickup coil was used to
directly measure the flux change in the Terfenol, and the strain gauge
bridge directly measures the elongation of the rod. The Terfenol rod
elongates in response to a magnetic field generated by the signal
coil. The wire size is selected to match the actuator impedance to the
drive electronics. It can generate 500 Oersteds per ampere. Magnetic
bias is required to set a magnetostriction inside the Terfenol-D rod
caused by coils in the center of its linear operating range, so that an
alternating current applied to the signal coil will cause the actuator
to alternately extend and contract depending on the direction of the
generated by the signal 'Oil* Permanent magnets are
used in our actuators for the magnetic bias. Extensive design and
manufacturing modifications results in actuators which works well.
We achieved a travel o f f 127 microns ( f 5 thousandths of an inch).
The output stroke V.S. input current characteristics of Terfenol-D
actuators are non-linear and exhibit hysteresis, due to the material
property of Terfenol-D. However, in a small range of motion, the
characteristics can be approximated by:

6=Ku

(3.1)

where 6 is axial extension (stroke) caused by magnetic field change;

is
current to generate magnetic
and is the TerfenolD characteristic coefficient, which is a function of prestress level p,
external force f, previous state, and magnetic bias level H, etc.

FILTERALGORITHM
IV. A ROBUSTADAPTIVE
FOR ACTIVE VIBRATION CONTROL
Design of an active vibration control system is a challenging
task because of the large number of structural modes involved
in the bandwidth of interest and the large amount of uncertainty
involved. In our application, the problem is exacerbated by the fact
that the dynamic behavior of these systems will hardly be known
precisely during design, and identification of system model will
provide only limited information because of uncertainties such as
dynamic perturbations, transient thermal states, parameters drift, etc.
Furthermore, the actuators have nonlinear and unknown parameters.
All these facts raises concem as to robustness and stability of active
control systems.
There have been a number of active vibration control design
approaches proposed in recent years. The control design of most
of these approaches relies on the model information to predict the
structure's dynamic response. In reality, a perfect model of a lightly
damped space structure has an infinite number of lightly damped
modes. Consequently, higher order modes are truncated from the
model in order to perform effective control design. The model-based

TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 2. NO. 1, MARCH 1994

50

control design, such as LQG optimal control, pole-zero cancellation,

etc., will work well as long as the modes included in the model
are accurately compensated for, and the unmodelled modes are
sufficiently damped. In the case where there are closely spaced higher
order unmodelled modes, the performance of such control design will
severely deteriorate, even resulting in instability.
In this study, we employed a control design based on an adaptive
control concept. The dynamic model of the controlled system is
identified in real-time using an adaptive filter, which is based on
another adaptive lilter synthesizing the active control signal using a
filter-x algorithm [8].
Figure 5 depicts a basic scenario of active vibration control, where
PI denotes the transfer function (TF) of the primary channel of the
system, Pz the TF of the secondary channel of the system. The
vibration source U, which can be measured by input sensors, excites
the primary channel to generate uncontrollable undesirable vibration
disturbance y1 at the output sensor location. The output vibration
disturbancee is picked up by output sensor(s) and sent to an adaptive
filter with input sensor signal for active control signal generation.
As shown in the figure, the adaptive filter output f is fed into an
actuator (secondary channel) which produces proper anti-vibration
yz to cancel the vibration at the output sensor location.
The output disturbance (error signal) at instant k, as measured by
transducers located at the desired vibration-freeparts of the system, is
the sum of outputs from both primary and secondary channel which
can be expressed as:

e ( k ) = Y I ( ~ ) yz(k) = &(z)u(k)

+ Pz(z)f(k)

(4.1)

where z is an advanced operator, i.e., zu(k) = u(k 1).Based on

feedforward control principle, we define the control signal f ( k ) to
be a function of input u(k):

f(k) = H ( z ) u ( k ) .

(4.2)

The objective of an active vibration control system is then to generate

a anti-vibrational control signal f (k) through properly chosen H ( z )
such that the output error approaches zero: e ( k ) = 0. Theoretically,
H ( z ) can be derived from the following relation:

f(k) = -P;(z)P,(z)u(k).

(4.3)

When (4.3) is satisfied, a perfect vibration cancellation is achieved

an0 e ( k ) = 0. However, without complete a priori knowledge about
systems primary and secondary channels, the control law (4.3) cannot
be implemented.
One of approaches to deal with this dilemma is to use an adaptive
finite impulse response (FIR) filter with the least-mean square (LMS)
algorithm. Specially, an FIR filter is used to generate f ( k ) based on
past input sensor information:

channel with FIR filter. However the same idea applies to multiple
channel systems or the system which adopts IIR filter.
To construct an FIR filter which approximates the behavior of
Pz(z),we define:
m

Pz(t)~(k)
= V T ( k ) X ( k )= C ~ i ( k ) z (-kj)

(4.6)

r=O

where V ( k )= [wo(k) v1(k) . .. wm(k)lT is the weight vector

at time instant k; X ( k ) = [z(k)z(k- 1 ) . . .s(k - m)lT is the input
data vector at time instant k; The order of the system is (m 1).
Therefore

Pz(z)f(k)= C W i ( k ) W T ( k- i ) U ( k - i )
i=O
m

= C C w i ( k ) w j ( k - i ) ~ ( l c - i - j ) (4.7)
i=O j=O

where F ( k ) = [f(k)f(k - 1). . . f(k

m

- m)lT.Thus

e ( & )=Pl(%)u(k)+C~vi(k)wj(k-~)u(k-z- j ) .

(4.8)

i=O j = O

Taking partial derivatives of e ( k ) with respect to wi, we obtain

The recursive adapting laws for the FIR filters V is then:

v i ( k + l ) = w i ( k ) - p V , i e Z ( k ) = v i ( k ) - P p e ( k ) f ( k - i ) . (4.10)

So far we have obtained an adaptive law for adjusting the estimated

parameters of secondary channel transfer function 9 ( z ) based on
overall system output error.
The remaining problem is how to update the wj (k)to reduce output
error. Assuming commutativity of Pz(z) and H ( z ) ,we will have:
yz(k) = P z ( z ) H ( z ) u ( k )= H(z)Pz(z)u(k).

(4.1 1)

Since we already have the estimate of P2(z)

using weight array V ( k ) ,
(4.1 1) can be written as:

YZ(k) = H ( 4 V T ( k ) U ( k ) .

(4.12)

s(k)=V T ( W ( k )

(4.13)

Define

the error then can be expressed as:

+H(z)g(k)
= P(z)u(k) + C w j ( k ) g ( k -j>.
= Pl(z)u(k)

(4.14)

j=O

f ( k ) = C W j ( k ) U ( k -j) = W T ( k ) U ( k )

(4.4)

j=O

Therefore
(4.15)

where W(k)= [wo(k)wl(k). . . wn(k)IT is the weight vector at time

instant k;~ ( k =) [u(k)u(k- 1). .. u(k - .)IT
is the input vector
at time instant k; The order of the system is ( n 1).Therefore

e ( k ) = A ( z ) ~ ( k ) Pz(z)WT(k)U(k)

(4.5)

The LMS algorithm minimizes error function e 2 ( k ) by adjusting

W (k) in the steepest descent gradient direction. However this cannot
be done directly to (4.5) since & ( z ) is unknown.
To solve this problem, we proposed an adaptive control technique
which estimates S ( z ) simultaneously as W ( k )is being adapted. For
simplicity, the following discussion presents only the case of single

(4.16)

Rewriting (4.10) and (4.16) in matrix form, we should have

V ( k + 1) = V ( k )- P p e ( k ) F ( k )
W ( k + 1) = W ( k )- 2 p e ( k ) G ( k )
where G ( k ) = [ g ( k ) [ g ( k- 1 ) . . . g ( k - .)IT.

(4.17)
(4.18)

IFEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLQGY, VOL. 2, NO. 1, MARCH 1994

Equations (4.17) and (4.18) provide explicit adaptation laws for the
filters weight vectors W and V. The computation flow is shown in
the gray block of Figure 5, where filter 2 adapts its weights V based
on error e and secondry control command f, while the function of
filter 2 is to provide a filtered U signal g for the adaptation of
filter 1 based on input history. Filter 1 acts as feedforward controller
which generates an active control command f from input disturbance
U, and its weights W are adjusted according to the output error e and
filtered-u signal g.
The proposed algorithm estimates and tracks both the feedforward
controller transfer function and the secondaq channel transfer function in an on-line fashion. Therefore it can deal with severe system
and environmental changes and maintain acceptable performance. In
our real-time experiments, we deliberately changed the system parameters such as mass, and the proposed algorithm recovered quickly
from the unexpected change and readjusted to the performance before
the change.

51

The actual tests performed to validate our approach to vibration

control required relatively high speed digitization of the acceleration
sensor outputs, and relatively high speed output of the compensation
signals to the actuator. Total 18 input signals (6 top accelerometers,
6 bottom accelerometers, and 6 force transducers) were digitized to
12 bit accuracy using a Greenspring RM1260 bus carrier board. The
specific industry pack we used was the IP12ADC, which is a multiple
channel 12 bit digital to analog converter. One of the advantages
of this hardware selection is that it has a sample and hold circuit
so that all channels are captured simultaneously. The data output is
via a Greenspring RM1260 bus carrier board with industry packs.
The specific industry pack we used was the IP16DAC, which is a
six channel 16 bit digital to analog converter. The IP16DAC allows
simultaneous writing to all six outputs at a rate of 5000 updates per
second.
An IBM 386/25 MHz computer was used to host the control
algorithms and to operate AID and D/A converters capturing sensor
data, as well as to send out the final control signals to the TerfenolD actuators though power amplifiers. This computer proved to be
very slow for our applications. To take maximum advantage of
v. REAL-TIME IMPEMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
During the course of this study, Terfenol-D actuators were fab- computation resources, an asynchronous sampling procedure was
ricated, a cubic configured Stewart platform using the Terfenol-D used, which means that the sampling period is not controlled by
actuators was built incorporating a unique vibration control testbed, timed interrupts but simply processes the available input data as
and a robust adaptive filter algorithm was implemented in a real-time a repeated loop without any waiting period. The actual sampling
frequency was primarily limited by the time required to process the
experiment using the IAI testbed.
As shown in Figure 6, the IAI vibration control testbed consists control algorithm. In our experiments, we were able to achieve about
of a Stewart platform active vibration control assembly with circular 877 Hz sampling frequency.We are planning to upgrade our computer
mobile and base plates, both 0.9144 meter (36 inches) in diameter. system and to increase the computation speed by adopting digital
All six actuators are identical, including the configuration of force signal processor board.
The hardware described above represents a unique resource for
sensors and accelerometers. In order to monitor vibration of both the
lower plate and the upper plate, we designed our prototype system performing six degree of freedom vibration control experiments.
so that there are accelerometers on both the bottom and top of each Initial simulations and actual tests have been very encouraging. In the
actuator. The axial force of each actuator is monitored by a force cell experiments, the vibration source was a voltage driven shaker whose
mounted along the actuator axis. The actuators connect to mobile input was generated by a function generator. During our experiment,
and base plates through flex joints and connecting blocks. The length the systems resonant frequencies were tested by scanning the disturof each actuator assembly, including a force sensor, two flex joints, bance frequency from 1 Hz to 100 Hz and recording the frequencies
and two mounting cans for accelerometers,is about 0.4064 meter (16 corresponding to resonant peak frequencies. The observable resonant
frequencies are 13.7 Hz, 24.5 Hz, 35.8 Hz, 40.2 Hz, 56.2 Hz, 62.4
inches).
Similar to conventional Stewart platforms, the Stewart platform Hz, and 79.1 Hz. Among these resonant frequencies, No. 6 mode
mechanism we built for vibration control requires universal joints (freq=62.4 Hz) resulted in the maximum vibration amplitude on the
at the top and bottom of each actuator. In the case of vibration mobile plate.
The experimental data recorded from a two-channel run are shown
control, it is critical that there be no backslash as the direction of the
force changes. Even a few microns of backlash will be significant in in Figure 7, where the active controller first senses the reference
terms of the normal displacements of low level vibration, and any signals and records the outputs of the accelerometers as errors to
attempt to perform vibration control will be confounded by the non- activate the adaptation of the V and W filters. Then control command
linearity resulting from the backlash. We fabricated so called flex signals are calculated through a digital computer to drive two
joints from 70/7 stainless steel, which are totally backlash free. The Terfenol-D actuators of the Stewart platform isolation system. Figure
original design was provided by the Jet Propulsion Lab however we 7 shows the control system performance at a disturbance frequency
modified the design for our own purposes. The joint can support large of 62.4 Hz. A total of 2500 samples (about 2.5 s. of time history)
axial loads, and allows some small 2-DOF rotations as required in of acceleration measurements from two accelerometers mounted on
the mobile plate were recorded and plotted in the figure. During the
a Stewart platform.
The vibration test stand under the active control assembly is first 500 samples, the system was excited by the shaker at the above
configured as a passive Stewart platform. This configuration serves frequency without any active control. For the experiments shown in
as a fair six degree of freedom vibration source, which does not the first set of figures, the output of the accelerometer at the mobile
favor vibration in one axis over another. Each link of the passive plate read the peak-to-peak value of about 1.7 volts and 0.57 volts,
respectively. These measurements correspond to accelarations of
platform is made from a steel tube with rubber pads on both ends.
The accelerometers used were ATOCHEM ACH-03 piezoelectric 0.0641 msz and 0.0645 m/s2 for accelerometerone and accelerometer
polymer film accelerometers.The key specifications for the transduc- two. (Notice that the gains of signal conditioning circuits were
ers are: Sensitivity lo00 mv/G; Dynamic Range 1 microG; frequency different). Starting from 500 samples, the active controller was
response O.01Hz to 800 Hz; natural frequency 1.2 KHz. Although turned. Within 800 samples (0.8 seconds) the measured peak-tothe performance of the accelerometers was satisfactory, a significant peak value of acceleration was reduced to about 0.15 volts for
effort was required to build low noise level signal conditioning channel one and 0.02 volts for channel two. These measurements
electronics for this relatively new product.
correspond to accelerations of 0.00563 m/s2 and 0.00226 m/s2 for

52

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY. VOL. 2, NO. 1, MARCH 1994

accelerometerone and accelerometer two. An atenuation of about 30

dB was achieved. The active control signal were also recorded. An
exponentially increasing pattern was observed and the convergence
was reasonably good. Similar experiments were repeated at different
resonant frequencies, up to the point where the computer could
not meet the speed requirement. The experimental data show that
our adaptive filter algorithm achieved similar levels of vibration
attenuation at all of the frequencies tested.
VI. SUMMARY
Stewart Platform mechanisms have been investigated for many
years as a six DOF motion generators and six DOF parallel link
manipulators. We have studied the concept of a Stewart platfom
and the Stewart truss to deal with multiple DOF vibration isolation
problems of precision control for space-borne structures as well as
earth-based systems. A prototype of a six DOF active vibration
isolation system has been implemented by Intelligene Automation,
Inc. Our study suggested the feasibility of using a Stewart platfonn
to achieve six DOF vibration control in space applications. The
specific results of our study reported in this paper are summarized
below:
1. We have invented a new configuration of a Stewart platform which we call the cubic configuration. In a cubic
configuration, X, Y, and 2 motion for vibration control are
all decoupled, and both the kinematics and dynamics of the
platform and greatly simplified.
2. We have proposed a concept of a Stewart truss sturucture as
a design for an active member arrangement in active vibration
control applications.In a Stewart truss structure,each day of the
truss is configured as a Stewart platform. If all six elements on
one bay of the truss are replaced by active elements equipped
with sensors and actuators, this bay of the truss becomes an
actively controlled Stewart platform, which can be used to
prevent propagation of structural vibrations and to act as an
active mount for quiet components, or as an isolation device
for disturbance sources.
3. We have developed a new Terfenol-D actuator design. The
actuator has a significantly longer stroke than any commercially
avalable Terfenol-D actuator, and it also has both direct flux and
strain sensors integral to the actuator.
4. We fabricated a fully operational testbed for six DOF vibration
isolation, including both the mechanical and electrical components required. We designed and built all the sensor and data
acquisitionhardware and software to allow empirical evaluation
of the six-DOF active vibration control design.
5. We have developed a robust adaptive filter algorithm for six
DOF vibration isolation which does not exploit any specific
characteristics of a large space structure but which instead
learns the relevant transfer functions as the system operates. The
experimental results show about 30 dB attenuation in vibration
when the active system is employed.

Fig. A l .

fz

Discussion of uniformity of control authority.

= f 2 sin B

fv=f1+f2cos~

f = J Z Z j == Jf; + f;

+ 2 f i f i cos B.

Let f 1 have a positive value, and f 2 = p f I , where p is a proposional

coefficient. We have

The value of p where f reach its minimal value can be found through
function g;
g = p*

+ 2p%osB + 1

take the derivative to find the minimal point:

g

= 2p

+ 2 c ~ = ~o e
t

resulting:
p = -cos@

therefore,
min

fp=-

coee = f i sin 8.

On the other hand, f may reach its maximum value at the boundary
of p , which is either 1 or -1. We have:

f;:

= fld-.

The uniformity of control authority of the structure at a given q

angle is expressed as:

It is trivial to prove the Rf reaches maximum when B equals to r / 2 .

In other words, the uniformity of control authority becomes maximum
when two actuator are placed orthogonally each other.
In the similar manner, we can generalize above conclusion to
the relationship of three pairs of orthogonal actuators: when they
are orthogonal each other, the resulting structure has a maximum
uniformity of control authority. The proof is omitted.

APPENDIX 1 DISCUSSION
OF UNIFORMITY OF CONTROL AUTHORITY
Lets consider first a two dimension case with two actuators.
Without lossing the generality, assume actuator 1 aligns with X axis,
and the angle between actuator 1 and actuator 2 is B , which ranges
from - x / 2 to ~ / 2The
. f 1 and j 2 are the force generated by actuator
1 and actuator 2, respectively. We will first find the maximum and
minimum control authorities of this configuration at a given B angle.
Then we will show that the ratio of the minimum and maximum (i.e.,
uniformity) reaches maximum when 0 equals to 7r/2.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to extend their thanks to the sponsors
of this work from National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) under the grant NAS7-1134, and NAS7-1198. Special thanks
go to Mr. John Garba, Mr. Ben Wada, and their colleagues at
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for their cooporation and numerous
suggestions.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 2, NO. 1. MARCH 1994

REFERENCES

[l] E. F. Fichter, A stew& platform-based manipulator: general theory

and practical construction, Int. J. Robotics Res., vol. 5 , no. 2, 1986.
[2] J. Garba et. ai.: Adaptive structuresfor precision controlled large space
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[3] Z. Geng et al., On the dynamicmodel and kinematics analysisof a class
of Stewart platform, J. Robitics and Autonomous Sys?.,vol. 9, 1992.
[4] M. Goodfriend and K. Shoop, Adaptive characteristicsof the magnetostrictive alloy Terfenol-D for active vibration control, Proc. Recent

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Advances in Active Control Sound and Wbration, Blackburg, VA, April

1991.
[5] Intelligent Automation, Inc., Six degree of freedom active vibration
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[6] D. Steward, A platform with six degree of freedom, Proc. Inst. Mech.
Eng., London, vol. 180, 1965.
[7] B. Wadda, Adaptive structure: an overview, J. Spacecrafr, vol. 27,
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[8] B. Widrow and S. D. Steams, Adaprive signal processing. Prentice
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