Control of magnetorheological dampers for vibration reduction in a washing machine

The aim of this work is the analysis and design of a control system for vibration and noise reduction in a washing machine. The control system is implemented via a semi-active magnetorheological (MR) damper located on the suspension that links the drum to the cabinet. The entire design procedure is outlined: first, the semi-active actuator is described and an experimental protocol is proposed and tested; two adaptive control strategies are proposed, designed and tested. Some experiments are done in an anechoic chamber to assess the noise reduction. The reported results show the effectiveness of the proposed control system.