Abstract

The control of a flexible beam using ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs) is investigated in this paper. The mechanical flexible dynamics are modelled as a Timoshenko beam. The electric dynamics of the IPMCs are considered in the model. The port-Hamiltonian framework is used to propose an interconnected control model of the mechanical flexible beam and IPMC actuator. Furthermore, a passive and Hamiltonian structure-preserving linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) controller is used to achieve the desired configuration of the system, and the asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system is shown using damping injection. An experimental setup is built using a flexible beam actuated by two IPMC patches to validate the proposed model and show the performance of the proposed control law.