Characteristics of the time-optimal control of flexible structures with damping

The time-optimal control of flexible structures with damping is considered. We formulate the general time-optimal control problem for single-axis flexible structures, and an analytical result is given for a lower bound on the number of control switches for the one-bending-mode case. Numerical solutions and simulations are presented to show several interesting trends of the time-optimal control switch times as the frequencies and dampings of the flexible modes are varied.<
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