Critically stable damping in flexible structure control

The concept of critically stable damping and its application to flexible structure control are presented. Critically stable damping was originally noted from the viewpoint of control-structure integration. It was recognized that a slight augmentation of structural damping would result in substantially more robust control without decreased performance and could guarantee the stability margin for any structural frequency increase. This paper illustrates the wide occurrence of critically stable damping phenomenon, establishes its basic relationship for the insight of the general design procedure, and applies the concept into the practical design of a satellite with a large deployable antenna. It is noted that the critically stable damping concept could provide a feasible approach to overcome the difficulty in ultra-large space structure design and control, and enhance the performance of a variety of excellent control design methodologies for flexible structure control. This critically stable damping provides new insight into the integrated design of control and structure.