Actuator saturation control of uncertain structures with input time delay

This paper presents a robust saturation control approach for active vibration attenuation of building structures involving parameter uncertainties and input time delay. The parameter uncertainties are described in both polytopic and norm-bounded forms and represent the variations of floor masses, stiffnesses and damping coefficients. The input time delay can be time-varying within a known bound. In terms of the feasibility of certain delay-dependent linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), a state feedback controller can be designed to guarantee the robust stability and performance of the closed-loop system in the presence of parameter uncertainties, actuator saturation, and input time delay. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is investigated by numerical simulations on the vibration control of a three-storey building structure subject to seismic excitation. It is validated that the designed robust saturation controller can effectively suppress the structural vibration and keep the system stability when there are parameter uncertainties and input time delay.