Experimental validation of optimization-based integrated controls-structures design methodology for flexible space structures

This paper describes the first experimental verification of the benefits of control-structure integrated design methodology, as part of the efforts of the controls-structures-interaction (CSI) program at NASA Langley in developing and experimentally verifying CSI design methodologies. In this design methodology, the structural and control designs are performed in a unified environment which would allow a complete iteration on all critical (control and structural) design variables in a single integrated computational framework. The phase-0 CSI Evolutionary Model, a laboratory structure at NASA Langley, was used as the candidate flexible structure for this experimental validation.< >