Currently, many smart materials exhibit one or multifunctional capabilities that are being effectively exploited in various engineering applications, but these are only a hint of what is possible. Newer classes of smart materials are beginning to display the capacity for self-repair, self-diagnosis, self-multiplication, and self-degradation. Ultimately, what will make them practical and commercially viable are control devices that provide sufficient speed and sensitivity. While there are other candidates, piezoelectric actuators and sensors are proving to be the best choice. Piezoelectric Actuators: Control Applications of Smart Materials details the authors’ cutting-edge research and development in this burgeoning area. It presents their insights into optimal control strategies, reflecting their latest collection of refereed international papers written for a number of prestigious journals. Piezoelectric materials are incorporated in devices used to control vibration in flexible structures. Applications include beams, plates, and shells; sensors and actuators for cabin noise control; and position controllers for structural systems such as the flexible manipulator, engine mount, ski, snowboard, robot gripper, ultrasonic motors, and various type of sensors including accelerometer, strain gage, and sound pressure gages. The contents and design of this book make it useful as a professional reference for scientists and practical engineers who would like to create new machines or devices featuring smart material actuators and sensors integrated with piezoelectric materials. With that goal in mind, this book: Describes the piezoelectric effect from a microscopic point of view Addresses vibration control for flexible structures and other methods that use active mount Covers control of flexible robotic manipulators Discusses application to fine-motion and hydraulic control systems Explores piezoelectric shunt technology This book is exceptionally valuable as a reference for professional engineers working at the forefront of numerous industries. With its balanced presentation of theory and application, it will also be of special interest to graduate students studying control methodology.

In the last two decades, a great effort has been directed towards the development of new smart materials actuators and their corresponding application devices and systems. Currently, some smart materials actuators are commercially applied for several technologies including automotive technology, but some of the smart materials actuators are still far from meeting strict practical requirements such as reliability, cost-effectiveness and robustness against unexpected environment conditions. Therefore, it is timely and appropriate to present recent research on smart materials actuators in terms of material characterization and advanced application systems in a single book. This book describes smart materials actuator technology from materials characterizations to device or system applications. The smart materials introduced in this book include magnetorehological fluid (MRF), magnetorheological elastomer (MRE), electrorheological fluid (ERF), piezoelectric material (PM), shape memory ally (SMA), dielectric elastomer (DE) and ionic polymer (IP). Both physical and chemical characterizations of each smart material are described in details in terms of actuating aspect. In addition, several application devices utilizing each smart material are introduced to provide practical controllability as a potential candidate for new actuators. The application devices introduced in this book include MRF damper for automotive suspension, PM unimorph pump for micro-hydraulic system, MRE flexible structure for vibration control, IP biomimetic micro-robot and SMA civil structure and damper system for vibration attenuation.

Recently, considerable attention has been focused on vibration control technology using "smart" or "intelligent" materials, which have inherently actuating and sensing capabilities. Typically these materials are employed to the vibration control of lumped parameter systems or distributed parameter structures by controlling the mass-distribution, stiffness change and the dissipation change. This may be accomplished by semi-active control or active control methods associated with the smart material actuators. Among many candidates of smart materials, magneto-rheological materials and piezoelectric materials are frequently adopted for vibration control. Magneto-rheological fluid and elastomer are especially utilized for vibration control of lumped parameter systems such as automotive damper, while the piezoelectric materials are used for vibration control of flexible distributed parameter structures with salient characteristics, such as fast response time. This book can be used as a textbook for graduate students or as a reference book for potential researchers who are interested in vibration control utilizing new methods associated with smart materials actuators. This book will provide some novel insights for advanced vibration control technology to many readers.

“Piezoelectric-Based Vibration-control Systems: Applications in Micro/Nano Sensors and Actuators” covers: Fundamental concepts in smart (active) materials including piezoelectric and piezoceramics, magnetostrictive, shape-memory materials, and electro/magneto-rheological fluids; Physical principles and constitutive models of piezoelectric materials; Piezoelectric sensors and actuators; Fundamental concepts in mechanical vibration analysis and control with emphasis on distributed-parameters and vibration-control systems; and Recent advances in piezoelectric-based microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems design and implementation.

Smart Materials-Based Actuators at the Micro/Nano-Scale: Characterization, Control, and Applications gives a state of the art of emerging techniques to the characterization and control of actuators based on smart materials working at the micro/nano scale. The book aims to characterize some commonly used structures based on piezoelectric and electroactive polymeric actuators and also focuses on various and emerging techniques employed to control them. This book also includes two of the most emerging topics and applications: nanorobotics and cells micro/nano-manipulation.

Real-time model predictive controller (MPC) implementation in active vibration control (AVC) is often rendered difficult by fast sampling speeds and extensive actuator-deformation asymmetry. If the control of lightly damped mechanical structures is assumed, the region of attraction containing the set of allowable initial conditions requires a large prediction horizon, making the already computationally demanding on-line process even more complex. Model Predictive Vibration Control provides insight into the predictive control of lightly damped vibrating structures by exploring computationally efficient algorithms which are capable of low frequency vibration control with guaranteed stability and constraint feasibility. In addition to a theoretical primer on active vibration damping and model predictive control, Model Predictive Vibration Control provides a guide through the necessary steps in understanding the founding ideas of predictive control applied in AVC such as: · the implementation of computationally efficient algorithms · control strategies in simulation and experiment and · typical hardware requirements for piezoceramics actuated smart structures. The use of a simple laboratory model and inclusion of over 170 illustrations provides readers with clear and methodical explanations, making Model Predictive Vibration Control the ideal support material for graduates, researchers and industrial practitioners with an interest in efficient predictive control to be utilized in active vibration attenuation.

Explores State-of-the-Art Work from the World's Foremost Scientists, Engineers, Educators, and Practitioners in the FieldWhy use smart materials?Since most smart materials do not add mass, engineers can endow structures with built-in responses to a myriad of contingencies. In their various forms, these materials can adapt to their environments by c