Vibration suppression with fractional-order PIλDμ controller

Cantilever beams have an important role in day to day life in bridges, towers, buildings and aircraft wings, making active vibration suppression a highly researched field. The purpose of this paper is to detail the design of fractional order PID controllers for smart beams. A novel tuning procedure is proposed based on solving a set of nonlinear complex equations that directly aim at reducing the resonant peak. The control parameters are computed through optimization techniques, making sure that the best ones are chosen. The practical stand was realized using magnet-coil approach and not piezoelectric actuators. The experimentally obtained vibration results prove that fractional order PID controllers can be used in practice to significantly reduce the amplitude and settling time of the vibrating system.