Advantages of torque unit for flexible beam control

This paper describes a flexible beam with a "torque unit (TU)". The TU consists of a rotational actuator and a wheel, which is connected to the shaft of the actuator. The TU can be attached to any position on the beam as an additional actuator, and its counter-torque controls the beam's vibration. In order to show advantages of the TU for control of a flexible beam, we carried out some computer simulations of PD control for the flexible beam with the TU and without it. It was clarified from the simulation results that using the TU as an additional actuator improves control performance and saves energy. Moreover, it was shown how the TU's wheel size and position affect the control performance.