Field Programmable Gate Array Implementation of Active Control Laws for Multi-mode Vibration Damping

This paper investigates the possibility and effectiveness of multi-mode vibration control of a plate through real-time FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) implementation. This type of embedded system offers true parallel and high throughput computation abilities. The control object is an aluminum panel, clamped to a Perspex box’s upper side. Two types of control laws are studied. The first belongs to non-model based control. This control law is designed to generate active damping within the designed bandwidth. The second control law is model based H-infinity robust control. A system identification process is needed before the controller comes out. Each of the control laws is implemented on a FPGA target, which is powerful enough to achieve high throughput control loop rates. The experimental control results demonstrate that the non-model based control law has sufficient authority to suppress the interesting modes. The model-based robust control law’s control performance is not so positive compared to the previous method. Therefore, it is not recommended for this application.