Active and Adaptive Control for Payload Launch Vibration Isolation

The Department of Defense has identified launch vibration isolation as a major research interest. Reducing the loads a satellite experiences during launch will greatly enhance its reliability and lifetime, and reduce payload structural mass. DoD space programs stand to benefit significantly from advances in vibration isolation technology. This study explores potential hybrid vibration isolation using active and adaptive control with a passive vibration isolator. The active control methods are Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control and a skyhook damper. Lyapunov analysis is used to develop the structural adaptive control scheme. Simulink and Matlab simulations investigate these control methodologies on a lumped mass dynamic model of a satellite and its representative launch vehicle. The results of the modeling indicate adaptive control achieves up to a 90 percent reduction in loads on the payload when compared to the conventional active control methods. The adaptive controller compensated for the loads being transmitted to the payload from the rest of the launch vehicle. The current adaptive controller was not able to effectively control the motion of a vibrating subcomponent within the payload or the subcomponent's effect on the overall payload itself.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB Oh School of Engineering is the author of 'Active and Adaptive Control for Payload Launch Vibration Isolation', published 2000 under ISBN 9781423536383 and ISBN 142353638X.