Dynamic Morphing Research Articles

Theoretical and experimental investigations on a data-driven trajectory planning scheme for dynamic shape control of piezo-actuated compliant morphing structures

Piezo-actuated compliant morphing structures can transmit motion and force via elastic deformation with lower weight, simplified design, and higher accuracy, a typical example is the variable camber wing. However, the rapid shape change of compliant structures is a challenging control problem because it often results in a high level of vibration due to the structural flexibility necessary to achieve the morphing requirement. This study presents a model-free data-driven trajectory planning approach based on spline curves and surrogate-based optimization (SBO) to obtain smooth “rest-to-rest” morphing trajectories. The macro-fiber composite (MFC) patches are used for piezoelectric actuators to generate elastic deformation. The flexible beam and variable camber wing are used for both linear numerical simulation and experimental tests with various nonlinearities and uncertainties. An optimization criterion is proposed to minimize both transient and residual vibrations during the “rest-to-rest” motion. An extraordinarily terminal displacement error function is added to eliminate the effects of the hysteresis and creep of the actuator. The control inputs, i.e., voltage profiles for the MFCs, are defined using cubic spline curves via only a few control points. Then, the optimization problem is solved by employing a Kriging surrogate model-based algorithm integrated with the expected improvement (EI) infilling-sampling criterion, which constructs an efficient algorithm similar to reinforcement learning. The optimal morphing trajectories can be highly efficiently obtained by using only 4 control points and less than 150 samplings. The experimental results of both the plate model and the variable camber wing model show that the proposed method can not only achieve a smooth dynamic morphing trajectory with minimized vibration but also automatically compensate for hysteresis and creep. The proposed method provides an effective means for the rapid realization of an optimized morphing trajectory for compliant morphing structures.

Nonlinear dynamic morphing of conical bistable dielectric elastomer actuator

The bistable dielectric elastomer actuator (BDEA) possesses two stable positions which offers notable advantages of stable-state self-maintenance, fast response, and threshold snap-through characteristic in comparison with conventional dielectric elastomers. However, the strong nonlinearity induced by the coupling among materials, structure, and electrostatic fields greatly affect the dynamic response and gives rise to stability issues. Hence, a novel BDEA is proposed by introducing DEA film centrally connected with one mass block and linear spring, and the bistability can be adjusted by applying external voltage. A nonlinear dynamical model considering the electro-mechanical coupling effects is established using the Euler-Lagrange method, with which the snap-through procedure is theoretically analyzed and validated through the analytic method and finite element method. The influences of the electric actuation and structural parameters on the number of stable states and natural frequency are analyzed. Additionally, the supercritical pitchfork bifurcation and saddle-node bifurcation are investigated through dynamic analysis under forced vibration. Furthermore, the ranges of electrical actuation parameters can be determined for preventing the bifurcation phenomena under parametric excitations. Moreover, an active morphing strategy for achieving nonlinear dynamic morphing between steady states of BDEA using drive voltage is obtained, thereby enhancing the versatility of conical BDEA.

Numerical and experimental studies of a morphing airfoil with trailing edge high-frequency flapping

The aerodynamic performance of a morphing airfoil is numerically and experimentally investigated. The morphing airfoil is designed based on macro fiber composites, capable of trailing edge flapping during 10–90 Hz with a maximum amplitude of 0.55 mm. A numerical model with flexible deformation walls based on the experiment is established to precisely restore the actual dynamic morphing instead of segmental deformation to explore the transient aerodynamic performance of high-frequency flapping. The drag coefficient is reduced by 2.07% at the flapping frequency (ff) of 37.5 Hz compared with the rigid airfoil, while the drag coefficient and the lift coefficient increase by 4.8% and 5.8% for ff at 600 Hz. The vortex is broken up by flapping, and the corresponding position has been forwarded to the tail. Dynamic mode decomposition shows that the wing's flapping dominates the second mode and the high-frequency vortex has changed to low-frequency. The energy of higher modes is transferred to lower-order modes that the first mode's power has risen sharply from 49.29% of the rigid airfoil to 91.83%. In the wind tunnel experiment, the lift and drag forces are increased by 1.88% and 0.77% at the flapping frequency of 40 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, the lift force frequency is locked by flapping and changes from 124.9 Hz of the rigid airfoil to the flapping frequency, consistent with the computational fluid dynamics results. The research has provided a solution to reduce the drag force and increase the lift force of the aircraft by the trailing edge flapping.

Learning emotional dialects: A British population study of cross-cultural communication.

The aim of the current research was to explore whether we can improve the recognition of cross-cultural freely-expressed emotional faces in British participants. We tested several methods for improving the recognition of freely-expressed emotional faces, such as different methods for presenting other-culture expressions of emotion from individuals from Chile, New Zealand and Singapore in two experimental stages. In the first experimental stage, in phase one, participants were asked to identify the emotion of cross-cultural freely-expressed faces. In the second phase, different cohorts were presented with interactive side-by-side, back-to-back and dynamic morphing of cross-cultural freely-expressed emotional faces, and control conditions. In the final phase, we repeated phase one using novel stimuli. We found that all non-control conditions led to recognition improvements. Morphing was the most effective condition for improving the recognition of cross-cultural emotional faces. In the second experimental stage, we presented morphing to different cohorts including own-to-other and other-to-own freely-expressed cross-cultural emotional faces and neutral-to-emotional and emotional-to-neutral other-culture freely-expressed emotional faces. All conditions led to recognition improvements and the presentation of freely-expressed own-to-other cultural-emotional faces provided the most effective learning. These findings suggest that training can improve the recognition of cross-cultural freely-expressed emotional expressions.

Asymmetric integral barrier Lyapunov function-based dynamic surface control of a state-constrained morphing waverider with anti-saturation compensator

To satisfy wide-speed and long-range mission requirements, morphing aircraft can maintain optimal flight performance by changing their configuration during flight. As an advanced morphing aircraft, a cross-domain morphing waverider can change its wing geometry to maintain a high lift-to-drag ratio across the subsonic, transonic, and supersonic to hypersonic speed ranges. During the highly dynamic morphing process, the trajectory tracking problem of the morphing waverider is characterized by strong coupling, time-varying characteristics, parameter uncertainties, input saturation, and asymmetric state constraints. To address these problems, this paper proposes an asymmetric integral barrier Lyapunov function (AIBLF) based dynamic surface controller consisting of two loops, based on the six-degrees-of-freedom partial decoupled control-oriented model of a symmetric-sweep-wing morphing waverider. Specifically, a virtual control signal of three-axis angular rates is provided by the AIBLF-based flight controller to satisfy the predefined asymmetric constraints of the angle of attack, sideslip angle, and bank angle, combined with a disturbance observer to approximate the disturbances of multiple parameter uncertainties. Subsequently, the desired virtual control signal consisting of three-axis angular rates is derived by passing the above virtual control signal through a nonlinear adaptive filter to avoid the problem of complexity explosion. The control command is generated by the dynamic surface controller and a finite-time anti-saturation compensator to overcome input saturation. Additionally, a nonlinear disturbance observer is applied to estimate the lumped disturbance to realize feedforward compensation. According to the stability analysis, all signals in the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded while the states remain in the constraint sets. Finally, the performance of the proposed controller is evaluated through extensive and comparative numerical simulations under multiple disturbances. The proposed controller has a small tracking error and high convergence speed and can prevent states from exceeding the given bounds.

A dynamically reprogrammable surface with self-evolving shape morphing.

Dynamic shape-morphing soft materials systems are ubiquitous in living organisms; they are also of rapidly increasing relevance to emerging technologies in soft machines1-3, flexible electronics4,5 and smart medicines6. Soft matter equipped with responsive components can switch between designed shapes or structures, but cannot support the types of dynamic morphing capabilities needed to reproduce natural, continuous processes of interest for many applications7-24. Challenges lie in the development of schemes to reprogram target shapes after fabrication, especially when complexities associated with the operating physics and disturbances from the environment can stop the use of deterministic theoretical models to guide inverse design and control strategies25-30. Here we present a mechanical metasurface constructed from a matrix of filamentary metal traces, driven by reprogrammable, distributed Lorentz forces that follow from the passage of electrical currents in the presence of a static magnetic field. The resulting system demonstrates complex, dynamic morphing capabilities with response times within 0.1 second. Implementing an in situ stereo-imaging feedback strategy with a digitally controlled actuation scheme guided by an optimization algorithm yields surfaces that can follow a self-evolving inverse design to morph into a wide range of three-dimensional target shapes with high precision, including an ability to morph against extrinsic or intrinsic perturbations. These concepts support a data-driven approach to the design of dynamic soft matter, with many unique characteristics.

3D Numerical Simulation of a Hovering Hummingbird-inspired Flapping Wing with Dynamic Morphing

Three-dimensional numerical simulations are performed to examine the effects of dynamic wing morphing of a hummingbird-inspired flexible flapping wing on its aerodynamic performance in hovering flight. The range analysis and variation analysis in the orthogonal experiment are conducted to assess the significance level of various deformations observed in the hummingbird wings on wing aerodynamic performance. It has been found that both camber and twist significantly can affect lift, and twist has an even higher significant impact on lift efficiency. Spanwise bending, whether out-of-stroke-plane or in-stroke-plane, has a negligible impact on lift and efficiency, and the in-stroke-plane bending can cause lift to decrease to an extent. Optimal parameters for determining the wing deformations are selected and tested to validate the conclusions drawn in the analysis for the results in orthogonal experiment. Through a comparison study between the optimized wings and the rigid wing, it is found that although the wing flexibility can cause the net force to decrease, the flexible wing used less energy to bring the net force closer to the vertical direction, thereby improving the lift efficiency. This study provides an aerodynamics understanding of the efficiency improvement of the hummingbird-inspired flexible flapping wing.

Numerical Study of the Aerodynamics of a Hovering Hummingbird’s Wing with Dynamic Morphing

To deepen our understanding of the aerodynamics by which hummingbirds use flexible wings to hover efficiently during flapping flight, a three-dimensional wing model with dynamic morphing was developed according to the morphological and kinematic data of a hovering hummingbird’s wing. Navier-Stokes equations were solved on a dynamically deforming grid to study wing aerodynamics. In numerical simulations, boundary-based smoothing and overset methodologies were used in combination to update the interior nodes of cells in the computational domain, allowing those nodes to accommodate the motion of the flexible wall. This study showed that the leading edge vortex (LEV) attached to the wing was stable during the downstroke but extremely unstable and shed continuously during the upstroke. In the results of the downward stroke, the different vortices separated from the surface and formed a vortex ring. The difference is that the leading edge vortex induced a vortex ring near the root and a smaller and weaker vortex ring near the wingtip during the upstroke. A significant enhancement in aerodynamic forces was found during the downstroke, along with a large number of power consumptions. We found that the asymmetry in the time-averaged vertical force between the two half strokes was 3.5, and the value was higher than that reported earlier. Aerodynamic force coefficients and efficiency matched well with those of another hummingbird wing (the ruby-throated hummingbird). It is worth noting that hummingbirds can maintain a similar wingtip speed by flapping their wings, but different strategies are adapted to hover efficiently due to the differences in size and body weight. The results of this study help to better understand the aerodynamics of the hovering hummingbird.

Effects of an Unsteady Morphing Wing with Seamless Side-Edge Transition on Aerodynamic Performance

This paper presents an unsteady flow analysis of a 3D wing with a morphing trailing edge flap (TEF) and a seamless side-edge transition between the morphed and static parts of a wing by introducing an unsteady parametrization method. First, a 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) analysis of a statically morphed TEF with seamless transition is performed and the results are compared with both a baseline clean wing and a wing with a traditional hinged flap configuration at a Reynolds number of 0.7 × 106 for a range of angles of attack (AoA), from 4° to 15°. This study extends some previous published work by examining the inherent unsteady 3D effects due to the presence of the seamless transition. It is found that in the pre-stall regime, the statically morphed wing produces a maximum of a 22% higher lift and a near constant drag reduction of 25% compared with the hinged flap wing, resulting in up to 40% enhancement in the aerodynamic efficiency (i.e., lift/drag ratio). Second, unsteady flow analysis of the dynamically morphing TEF with seamless flap side-edge transition is performed to provide further insights into the dynamic lift and drag forces during the flap motions at three pre-defined morphing frequencies of 4 Hz, 6 Hz, and 8 Hz, respectively. Results have shown that an initially large overshoot in the drag coefficient is observed due to unsteady flow effects induced by the dynamically morphing wing; the overshoot is proportional to the morphing frequency which indicates the need to account for dynamic morphing effects in the design phase of a morphing wing.

Recent Progress on Aeroelasticity of High-Performance Morphing UAVs

The high-performance morphing aircraft has become a research focus all over the world. The morphing aircraft, unlike regular unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), has more complicated aerodynamic characteristics, making itmore difficultto conduct its design, model analysis, and experimentation. This paper reviews the recent process and the current status of aeroelastic issues, numerical simulations, and wind tunnel test of morphing aircrafts. The evaluation of aerodynamic characteristics, mechanism, and relevant unsteady dynamic aerodynamic modeling throughout the morphing process are the primary technological bottlenecks formorphing aircrafts. The unstable aerodynamic forces have a significant impact on the aircraft handling characteristics, control law design, and flight safety. In the past, the structural analysis of morphing aircrafts, flight dynamics modeling, computational mesh morphing technology, and aerodynamic calculation were performed in promoting the development of next generation UAVs, with nonlinear dynamic challenges includingtransonic aeroelastic problems and high angle of attack aeroelastic problems. At present, many facets of these difficulties, together with the accompanying numerical simulation studies, remain under-explored. In addition, wind tunnel experiments face significant challenges in the dynamic morphing process. Finally, dynamic unsteady aerodynamic characteristics in the continuous morphing process still need to be verified by more related experiments.

Unconventional Approaches to Light-Promoted Dynamic Surface Morphing on Polymer Films

Abstract Recent progress in research of light-promoted surface morphing on polymer materials is reviewed. Photoinduced mass transport motions in azobenzene polymers leading to surface relief gratings (widely called SRGs) formation are well-known and extensively discussed. Among many efforts, this article focuses on unconventional approaches, most of which are seemingly less highlighted. The first part introduces investigations using azobenzene polymers; introducing supramolecular approaches with tunable and removable azobenzene units, self-structuring of surface morphology upon single laser beam irradiation, photo-triggered migration via Marangoni flow, SRG formation and other functions of polymer brushes etc. The second part overviews the mass transport motions driven by other photoreaction classes such as photopolymerization, photocrosslinking, and photoisomerization of non-azobenzene components. The final part describes new dynamic surface morphing processes observed in fingerprint texture of liquid crystals and liquid crystal polymer networks, which can be applied to reversible friction control and self-cleaning. These uncommon attempts at photo-assisted dynamic morphing extend the possibilities of microfabrication on polymer films and are expected to find new opportunities to create new surface functions in soft materials.

Parametric resonances of nonlinear piezoelectric beams exploiting in-plane actuation

A nonlinear Euler–Bernoulli model of slender piezoelectric beams is employed to investigate parametric resonance motions driven by a pulsating voltage with a DC component. The beam model is based on 3D electric charge conservation and 1D reduction of the momentum balance laws assuming as space coordinate the arclength along the beam base line as space coordinate. The 3D constitutive relationships for a piezoelectric material are specialized according to the Euler–Bernoulli ansatz of transverse unshearability. The nonlinear piezoelastic problem of the parametrically excited beam is directly attacked by the method of multiple scales up to the fifth nonlinear order overcoming modal projection drawbacks and severe restrictions on the oscillation amplitude range. The transition curves, separating regions of stable and unstable trivial solutions in the voltage frequency–amplitude plane, are obtained for various modes of a PVDF beam. The onset of parametric resonances and the post-critical large motion are investigated upon variations of meaningful parameters such as the prestress DC voltage amplitude. The analytical outcomes are compared with those provided by the finite element code ABAQUS which yields the numerical solution of the full 3D nonlinear piezoelectric problem. Moreover, the frequency–response curves to within fifth order are computed applying the pseudo-arclength method to the algebraic frequency–response equation. The frequency–response curves of the lowest few modes reveal new aspects of the parametric resonance motions which can be exploited in applications such as dynamic morphing of thin surfaces.

Conceptual design and numerical studies of active flow control aerofoil based on shape-memory alloy and macro fibre composites

ABSTRACTActive flow control for aerofoils has been proven to be an effective way to improve the aerodynamic performance of aircraft. A conceptual hybrid design with surfaces embedded with Shape-Memory Alloy (SMA) and trailing Macro Fibre Composites (MFC) is proposed to implement active flow control for aerofoils. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model has been built to explore the feasibility and potential performance of the proposed conceptual hybrid design. Accordingly, numerical analysis is carried out to investigate the unsteady flow characteristics by dynamic morphing rather than using classical static simulations and complicated coupling. The results show that camber growth by SMA action could cause an evident rise of Cl and Cd in the take-off/landing phases when the Angle-of-Attack (AoA) is less than 10°. The transient tail vibration behaviour in the cruise period when using MFC actuators is studied over wide ranges of frequency, AoA and vibration amplitude. The buffet frequency is locked in by the vibration frequency, and a decrease of 1.66–2.32% in Cd can be achieved by using a proper vibration frequency and amplitude.

Piezoelectrically induced nonlinear resonances for dynamic morphing of lightweight panels

A rich variety of resonance scenarios induced in thin elastic plates by periodic axial strains is investigated to describe the morphing capability of flexible, ultra-lightweight panels. The strain-induced excitation is provided by embedded piezoelectric strips actuated by time-varying voltages. The study deals with plates characterized by geometric and mechanical symmetry entailing cylindrical motions so that an ad hoc approximate nonlinear model of elastic beams is adopted to formulate the incremental equation of motion about the nonlinear equilibrium under dead loads. An asymptotic approach based on the method of multiple scales is employed to study the plate dynamics and, primarily, to investigate the effect of the plate slenderness on the nonlinearity of the lowest normal modes. A bifurcation analysis is carried out to investigate the wide array of resonances induced by the harmonic axial excitation, acting in nontrivial equilibrium states, which include primary, super-harmonic, sub-harmonic, and principal parametric resonances, respectively. For selected slendernesses of the plate, corresponding to nonlinear softening, hardening and quasi-linear behaviors, respectively, comprehensive parametric studies on the effect of the PZT cross-sectional size, the plate damping, and the piezoelectric coupling coefficient are carried out to identify the threshold voltages triggering the different resonances.

Artificial Neural Networks-Extended Great Deluge Model to predict Actuators Displacements for a Morphing Wing Tip System

Resin-based fiber composite materials have received attention in aerospace composite engineering, particularly in aircraft morphing structures, due to their high mechanical characteristics, such as stiffness, and because of their potential to highly reduce the structural mass of modern aircraft. Aircraft morphing is referred to as the ability of an aircraft’s surface to change its geometry in flight. The modelling of a dynamic morphing wing system is here studied. The morphing wing was controlled using four electric actuators situated inside of the wing model. The main role of these actuators was to modify the wing upper surface shape designed and manufactured with a flexible material, so that the laminar-to-turbulent flow transition point can move closer to the wing trailing edge, thus causing a minimum viscous drag, for various flow conditions. To determine the skin deflections in the four actuators points, both LVDT and dial indicator gages were positioned on the wing. Four Linear Variable Differential Transducers (LVDTs) were used to indicate the positions of the four actuators, and four Dial Indicators gages were positioned on the wing to measure the real deflections of the flexible composite skin in the four actuation points. The relationship between the Dial Indicators’ values and the LVDTs’ values for a same set-point command signal had a nondeterministic and unpredictable behavior (not a linear one). The values of the displacements given by the LVDTs were different than the values given by the Dial Indicators. In this paper, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model was investigated created with the aim to predict the displacements of the wing upper surface skin in real time using four actuators. The proposed model was trained using the Extended Great Deluge (EGD) algorithm.

Theoretical and experimental investigations on modified LQ terminal control scheme of piezo-actuated compliant structures in finite time

This study focuses on the open-loop dynamic shape control to realize a rapid and smooth morphing process for a flexible plate which is actuated by a macro fiber composite patch. A finite element model of the system is established and verified for theoretical investigations. Steady-state and dynamic analyses are carried out to satisfy the desired rest-to-test morphing requirement. Spurious oscillations and large overshoots are observed while applying some common voltage signals. The results imply that the voltage profile of the actuator plays a key role in the dynamic morphing behavior of the system. Therefore, a quantitative criterion is proposed to determine the critical voltage slope for evaluating the boundary between quasi-static and dynamic processes. An optimal finite-time feedforward control approach named “modified linear quadratic (LQ) terminal controller” is proposed to optimize the voltage profiles by simultaneously considering the suppression of transient and residual vibration. The superiority of the proposed open-loop control scheme is appreciated when it is compared with the standard LQ terminal controller. An experimental setup is designed for verification. The effectiveness of the theoretical model is validated through modal analysis, static deformation, and dynamic responses. It is indicated by the experiment results that rapid and smooth dynamic shape morphing processes with negligible vibration within a short period of time can be achieved using the optimized voltage profile.

Tall Buildings with Dynamic Facade Under Winds

Burgeoning growth of tall buildings in urban areas around the world is placing new demands on their performance under winds. This involves selection of the building form that minimizes wind loads and structural topologies that efficiently transfer loads. Current practice is to search for optimal shapes, but this limits buildings with static or fixed form. Aerodynamic shape tailoring that consists of modifying the external form of the building has shown great promise in reducing wind loads and associated structural motions as reflected in the design of Taipei 101 and Burj Khalifa. In these buildings, corner modifications of the cross-section and tapering along the height are introduced. An appealing alternative is to design a building that can adapt its form to the changing complex wind environment in urban areas with clusters of tall buildings, i.e., by implementing a dynamic facade. To leap beyond the static shape optimization, autonomous dynamic morphing of the building shape is advanced in this study, which is implemented through a cyber–physical system that fuses together sensing, computing, actuating, and engineering informatics. This approach will permit a building to intelligently morph its profile to minimize the source of dynamic wind load excitation, and holds the promise of revolutionizing tall buildings from conventional static to dynamic facades by taking advantage of the burgeoning advances in computational design.

Measuring recognition of body changes over time: A human-computer interaction tool using dynamic morphing and body ownership illusion.

Measuring body image is crucial at both personal and social levels. Previous studies have attempted to quantitatively measure body image but methods for measuring body change recognition over time have not yet been established. The present study proposes a novel human-computer interaction technique using dynamic morphing and body ownership illusion, and we conducted a user study to investigate how body ownership illusion and gender would affect to body change recognition. The results showed that a participant’s body change recognition was weak when the body ownership illusion was strong. In addition, female participants were less sensitive than male participants. With our proposed technique, we demonstrated that we were able to quantitatively measure body change recognition and our empirical data indicated that body change recognition varied depending on body ownership illusion and gender, suggesting that our methodology could not only be used in future body image studies but also in eating disorder treatments.

Numerical investigation of frequency-amplitude effects of dynamic morphing for a high-lift configuration at high Reynolds number

PurposeThe purpose of this study illustrates the morphing effects around a large-scale high-lift configuration of the Airbus A320 with two elements airfoil-flap in the take-off position. The flow around the airfoil-flap and the near wake are analysed in the static case and under time-dependent vibration of the flap trailing-edge known as the dynamic morphing.Design/methodology/approachExperimental results obtained in the subsonic wind tunnel S1 of Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse of a single wing are discussed with high-fidelity numerical results obtained by using the Navier–Stokes multi-block (NSMB) code with advanced turbulent modelling able to capture the predominant instabilities and coherent structure dynamics. An explanation of the dynamic time-dependent grid deformation is provided, which is used in the NSMB code to simulate the flap’s trailing-edge deformation in the morphing configuration. Finally, power spectral density is performed to reveal the coherent wake structures and their modification because of the morphing.FindingsFrequency of vibration and amplitude of deformation effects are investigated for different morphing cases. Optimal morphing regions at a specific frequency and a slight deformation were able to attenuate the predominant natural shear-layer frequency and to considerably decrease the width of the von Kármán vortices with a simultaneous increase of aerodynamic performances.Originality/valueThe new concept of future morphed wings is proposed for a large scale A320 prototype at the take-off position. The dynamic morphing of the flap’s trailing-edge is simulated for the first time for high-lift two-element configuration. In addition, the wake analysis performed helped to show the turbulent structures according to the organised eddy simulation model.

Dynamic Morphing of Smart Trusses and Mechanisms Using Fuzzy and Neuro-Fuzzy Techniques

In the present investigation, the principles of dynamic morphing of smart truss structures and mechanisms are discussed. A possible way in order to find the optimal geometry of the structure for the enhancement of structural performance in terms of vibration control is sought. The vibrations of the host dynamic structures are monitored by controllers which are based on the principles of Mamdani-type fuzzy inference and Sugeno-type adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference. More specifically, the objective of the present study is a design, tuning and an application of robust intelligent control mechanisms by means of the suppression of structural vibrations for several types of excitation forces. The proposed models are discretized by using a finite element method. For the time integration of the equations of motion, the Newmark-β method is used. The calculations and the analysis are conducted within the Matlab environment by using the Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) tool, which is included in the fuzzy toolbox. The controllers are tested with different excitation forces applied on a truss-shaped structure. The control outputs are applied on each time of the simulation in order to achieve the lowest possible deformation and to prevent potential damage or corruption of the structure. The same principles are used for the dynamic morphing of structures and mechanisms. The proposed formulation can be applied, among many others, on smart irrigation systems such as spray booms, on radio-telescope bases, on the spars of smart wings, on aircraft wings etc.