Micro-vibration has been a dominant factor impairing the performance of scientific experiments which are expected to be deployed in a micro-gravity environment such as a space laboratory. The micro-vibration has serious impact on the scientific experiments requiring a quasi-static environment. Therefore, we proposed a maglev vibration isolation platform operating in six degrees of freedom (DOF) to fulfill the environmental requirements. In view of the noncontact and large stroke requirement for micro-vibration isolation, an optimization method was utilized to design the actuator. Mathematical models of the actuator's remarkable nonlinearity were established, so that its output can be compensated according to a floater's varying position and a system's performance may be satisfied. Furthermore, aiming to adapt to an energy-limited environment such as space laboratory, an optimum allocation scheme was put forward, considering that the actuator's nonlinearity, accuracy, and minimum energy-consumption can be obtained simultaneously. In view of operating in 6-DOF, methods for nonlinear compensation and system decoupling were discussed, and the necessary controller was also presented. Simulation and experiments validate the system's performance. With a movement range of 10 × 10 × 8 mm and rotations of 200 mrad, the decay ratio of −40 dB/Dec between 1 and 10 Hz was obtained under close-loop control.

Lightweight optical mirrors usually play key roles in aerospace and optical structural systems applied to space telescopes, radars, solar collectors, communication antennas, etc. Due to their high flexibility and low damping properties, external excitations such as orbital maneuver may induce unexpected oscillations and thus reduce their working performance. Active vibration control is therefore essential for the lightweight optical mirror systems. In this spirit, a lightweight mirror structronic system with a linear quadratic optimal controller is presented. The mirror is modeled as a membrane plate with pretension and distributed polyvinylidene fluoride sensors and actuators. The sensing sensitivity of the piezoelectric (PVDF) sensors and the modal actuation factor of the PVDF actuators are derived. The state-space equations are established and the feedback control gains between sensing and control signals are obtained. Sensor and actuator of different shape, size, and position are employed to actively control the first four natural modes of the mirror. The influences of mode order, pretension, and the two weighting factors Q and R on the control performance are also investigated. Analytical results in this paper could guide the design and layout of the PZT sensor and actuator on lightweight membrane plate mirrors.

The shape memory alloy (SMA)-based actuators have been increasingly used in different domains, such as automotive, aerospace, robotic and biomedical applications, for their unique properties. However, the precision control of such SMA-based actuators is still a problem. Most traditional control methods use the force/displacement signals of the actuator as feedback signals, which may increase the volume and weight of the entire system due to the additional force/displacement sensors. The resistance of the SMA, as an inherent property of the actuator, is a dependent variable which varies in accordance with its macroscopic strain or stress. It can be obtained by the voltage and the current imposed on the SMA with no additional measuring devices. Therefore, using the resistance of the SMA as feedback in the closed-loop control is quite promising for lightweight SMA-driven systems. This paper investigates the resistance characteristics of the SMA actuator in its actuation process. Three factors, i.e., the resistivity, the length, and the cross-sectional area, which affect the change of resistance were analyzed. The mechanical and electrical parameters of SMA were obtained using experiments. Numerical simulations were performed by using the resistance characteristic model. The simulation results reveal the change rules of the resistance corresponding to the strain of SMA and demonstrate the possibility of using the resistance for feedback control of SMA.

High precision measurement of acceleration levels is required to allow active control for vibration isolation platforms. It is necessary to propose an accelerometer configuration measurement model that yields such a high measuring precision. In this paper, an accelerometer configuration to improve measurement accuracy is proposed. The corresponding calculation formulas of the angular acceleration were derived through theoretical analysis. A method is presented to minimize angular acceleration noise based on analysis of the root mean square noise of the angular acceleration. Moreover, the influence of installation position errors and accelerometer orientation errors on the calculation precision of the angular acceleration is studied. Comparisons of the output differences between the proposed configuration and the previous planar triangle configuration under the same installation errors are conducted by simulation. The simulation results show that installation errors have a relatively small impact on the calculation accuracy of the proposed configuration. To further verify the high calculation precision of the proposed configuration, experiments are carried out for both the proposed configuration and the planar triangle configuration. On the basis of the results of simulations and experiments, it can be concluded that the proposed configuration has higher angular acceleration calculation precision and can be applied to different platforms.

Due to the super flexibility and strong nonlinearity of space membrane antennas, the dynamic response of a space membrane antenna will be affected by the rigid–flexible coupling effect in the process of orbital maneuvering. In this case, the dynamic model of a tensioned membrane antenna is significantly different from that under the general condition (fixed boundary). In this study, a nonlinear dynamic model of a tensioned space membrane antenna experiencing maneuvering is established, and the influence of the rigid–flexible coupling effect on structural stiffness and damping characteristics is described. Through a numerical solution, the effects of rigid body motion and structural natural frequency on the rigid–flexible coupling effect are discussed. The results show that the vibration frequency and amplitude of the antenna are positively correlated with the acceleration and initial velocity of rigid body motion. With the increase of the natural frequency of the antenna, the vibration frequency increases but the amplitude decreases. The rigid–flexible coupling nonlinear dynamic model proposed in this work is more applicable in intelligent vibration control compared to finite element software.