Sufficient active control of uncertain low-frequency space micro-vibrations near measurement limit of acceleration sensors

Abstract

High-precision payloads such as ultra-stable optical clocks for next-generation space missions are greatly sensitive to the low-frequency micro-vibrations induced by various flexible appendages equipped on the spacecraft. The frequencies of such micro-vibrations are uncertain and near the measurement limit of acceleration sensors, leading to insufficient vibration control performance of classical feedback control. To solve this problem, a hybrid control algorithm which combines PI controller and the filter-x least-mean-square (FxLMS) algorithm is proposed in the paper. In particular, a frequency estimation algorithm is designed for the active vibration control system to provide the reference signal. In the new system, the rough estimation of disturbance frequency is given by the adaptive notch filter. Then, the frequency is refined by Kalman filter and provided into the autoregressive model, which fine-tunes the estimated frequency and offers the reference signal for the hybrid PI-FxLMS algorithm. Finally, the experimental prototype of active vibration control system is developed and the proposed control algorithm is adopted. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the frequency estimation algorithm and further validate that the proposed hybrid PI-FxLMS algorithm can effectively suppress the low-frequency micro-vibrations near the measurement limit of acceleration sensors and with uncertain frequency.