2013 Australian Control Conference
Active Vibration Control of Flexible Plate with Free-Free-Clamped-Clamped Edges
using Genetic Algorithm
Muhamad Sukri Hadi, Intan Z. Mat Darus and Hanim Mohd Yatim
Department of Applied Mechanics and Design,
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
Johor, Malaysia.
msukrihadi@gmail.com, intan@fkm.utm.my, hanim.yatim@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper presents an investigation of system
modeling using genetic algorithm and active vibration control
of flexible plate structure. The experimental rig was designed
and fabricated with free-free-clamped-clamped edges
boundary condition in this research. The experimental study
was conducted using experimental rig complete with data
acquisition and instrumentation system to collect the input-
output data of flexible plate structure. This input-output data
used to develop the system identification to obtain a dynamic
model of flexible plate based on auto-regressive with exogenous
input structure. The developed model using genetic algorithm
were validated using mean squared error, one step-ahead
prediction and correlation test. The fitness function of genetic
algorithm is mean squared error between the measured and
estimated outputs of flexible plate. The validations of
developed model were presented in time domain and frequency
domain. The modeling of flexible plate using genetic algorithm
was used in active vibration control system design for vibration
suppression on the plate structure. The performance of
developed controller assessed in term of spectral attenuation
obtained for resonance modes.
Keywords-genetic algorithm; rectangular flexible plate;
system identification; active vibration control
I. INTRODUCTION
The useful advantages possess by flexible plate such as
low energy consumption, fast of response and low cost have
attracted various engineering fields to employ with flexible
plate. Nowadays, industries have focused on how to
establish a more reliable, lightweight and efficient flexible
plate structure as compared with their rigid and bulky
counterparts. The characteristic of flexible plate used in the
industries today is thinner, lighter and larger than the
previously used [1].
Besides of their advantages, the flexible plate actually has
been given a big challenge for researchers and engineers
because the lightweight flexible structure used in the
engineering applications easily be influenced by unwanted
vibrations. The system vibration arising from structural
flexibility is a major constraint needs consideration by
researches. This vibration arising may lead to structural
fatigue, reduction on the performance, human discomfort
and instability. Hence, the attempts for tackling the
problems arising due to unwanted structural vibration are
ISBN 978-1-4799-2498-1 109
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA. Downloaded on November 14,2023 at 04:59:56 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
November 4-5, 2013, Perth, Australia
desirable and effective controller for suppression of
unwanted vibration need to be developed [2,3].
Active vibration control (AVC) is one of technique has
been expended used for vibration suppression of flexible
plate structure. AVC is working by interfere destructively the
unwanted source with generating canceling sources [4].
AVC is recognized with using the appropriate electronic
controller to process and detect the vibration and bring to the
cancellation of unwanted vibration when the superimposed
on disturbances is occurred. The principles of superposition
applied when two or more waves travel through in the same
medium at the same time. The result of AVC technique is
reducing the level of vibration (disturbances) at desired
location [5, 6 and 7].
The key to design the best controller for vibration
suppression is finding the appropriate and accurate model of
flexible plate. System identification is a robust method used
to find out the appropriate model of the system based on the
input and output data was observed. Although, the method
applied has been used by other researchers in many
engineering applications but a lot of attention still being
received nowadays [8].
To characterize the dynamic of a system using
identification method, input and output responses of the
system is required. The experimental study was conducted to
acquire the input and output vibration data of flexible plate.
The rectangular flexible plate experimental rig with free-
free-clamped-clamped (FFCC) edges boundary condition
was used in this research. The flexible plate were clamped at
the right and left side while the upper and bottom side are
free to vibrate. The external force was applied on the rig to
generate vibration responses which were used as input and
output data for identification of the system.
The procedure of this research started by collecting the
input and output data set of the flexible plate structure. Next,
the best model structure and its order to represent the system
are presented. The model of the system is estimated using
intelligent parametric modeling approach by genetic
algorithm (GA). The validations of developed model were
conducted using mean square error (MSE), one step-ahead
prediction (OSA) and correlation tests. Then, transfer
function obtained from modeling of plate system was used in
active vibration control system design for control the
vibration on the plate structure. The developed AVC
© 2013 Engineers Australia
mechanism is recognized with single-input-single-output 1
(SISO) control configurations in the flexible plate structure. S1 + S2 < M1 (1)
10
II. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
In the experiment setup, two pieces of piezo-beam type
accelerometers were directly connected with National
Instruments (NI) data acquisition system to acquire the
acceleration signal. NI data acquisition system consists of
NI compact-data acquisition unit (NI cDAQ-9172) equipped
with NI-9234 module. NI-9234 is a four channel C series
dynamic signal acquisition module for making high
accuracy frequency measurements. Personal computer with
Intel CoreTM Duo Processor and LabVIEW software worked
together to analyze the required signal obtained in the
experiment. The layout for experimental setup has been
done in this research shows detail in Figure 2 [8].

Figure 1. Experimental setup to collect input-output data set.

Experimental study was conducted in this research to Flexible Plate

collect the input-output data set of flexible plate. Through Accelerometer

National Instruments (NI) data acquisition system, the input

(Kistler-8636C50)

and output of vibration data set of plate system will be Piezoelectric

Patch Actuator
Accelerometer
acquired. The plate structures used in the experimental rig P-876-A12 (Kistler-8636C50)

are rectangular, thin and flat aluminum. The dimensions

considered are 60cm  30cm  0.035cm. The dimensions of
flexible plate are 66cm  30cm  0.035cm. The details E-835 OEM
specifications of flexible plate used in the experimental rig Amplifier

are listed in Table I. During conducting the experimental NI Compact Data Acquisition
System type 9172 with NI-9234
studies, the flexible plate was clamped at right and left sides module

while the upper and bottom sides will be free to vibrate. Function Generator
TG1010A
A piezoelectric patch actuator P876-A12 was acted as an Programmable
10MHz DDS
actuation force and applied on the rig at the excitation point Personal Computer with
installation of LabVIEW
of plate during conducting the experiment. This is goals to software

give external force to the rig so that the plate will be

vibrated during the experiment. The piezoelectric actuator Figure 2. Layout of experimental setup.
was used has characteristic when subjected to voltage, they
show an alternation in length which can be employed to TABLE I. THE SPECIFICATIONS OF FLEXIBLE PLATE
exert forces to the hosted structure. The function generator
was employed in this study to create sinusoidal signal with No. Parameters Value
amplitude  10 V pp and frequency at 50 Hz in process of 1. Length of flexible plate, (a) 60 cm

creating an actuation force. The sinusoidal signal was 2. Width of flexible plate, (b) 30 cm
amplified to the piezoelectric patch which connected with 3. Modulus of elasticity, (E) 6.83  10
10
Nm-2
amplifier and generated an actuation force on the rig [9].
The total mass of sensor and actuator attached on the 4. Poison ratio, (v) 0.3
flexible plate cannot be over than 1/10 of the mass flexible 5. Density, (ρ) 2960 kgm-3
plate used in experimental rig. Hence, the choices of usage
6. Thickness, (t) 0.035 cm
sensor and actuator used in the experiment need to be
considered carefully to avoid the rig will be distorted if the
total mass used are exceed 1/10 of the mass of flexible plate. III. PARAMETRIC SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION
Two pieces of accelerometer were used at detection point
(S1) and observation point (S2) which 5 gram each and the Parametric estimation is the way to make it possible to
mass of flexible plate (M1) used is 186.42 gram. So, the adjust a model with a specific structure. It is need to
mass of sensor used in the experiment not exceeding the determine the best model of input-output data acquired from
mass of plate used as follows [9]: the experiment by finding the appropriate order and its
parameters. The estimated parameters is used to update the

110
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA. Downloaded on November 14,2023 at 04:59:56 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
system model after the maximum iteration number has been
reached and this process will be repeated until get the
satisfied optimization criteria. In this study, Auto-regressive
with exogenous (ARX) input structure was chosen to model
the flexible plate system and the model can be described as:
B( z ^ (1))  (t )
y (t )  u (t ) 
A( z ^ (1)) A( z ^ (1))
where y ( t ) and u ( t ) are system output and input vector
respectively, while,
A( z ^ (1))  1  a1 ( z ^ (1))  ...  a n ( z ^ (n)) ,
B( z ^ (1))  b1 ( z ^ (1))  b2 ( z ^ (1))...  bn ( z ^ (n)),
 (t )  0 (white noise), z ^ (1) is a back-shift operator, and
n is model order of the system. The intelligent parametric of
genetic algorithm is used to optimize the parameters of
flexible plate system based on minimization mean squared
error (MSE) of the difference between outputs of the system
and its model. The equation of MSE can be described as
[10]:
N
  e(t ) 
1
 t  
2
N t 1
where  (t ) is mean square error, N is number of sample data,
e(t) is predicted error between the desired output and
estimated model output.
IV. GENETIC ALGORITHM
Genetic Algorithm (GA) is a modern heuristic
optimization technique has attracted considerable attention
among academia and the industry because of its ability to
solve effectively the non linear problem, ease of
implementation and solving the problems that are typical of
complex engineering systems. GA is a global, natural and
data independent search technique was developed by
Holland in 1975 [11, 12].
The working principle of GA algorithm is randomly
generating an initial individual of strings. At each cycle, the
individuals will be selected by GA to be parents and this
selected parent will be used to produce the children in the
next generation. Then, the objective function used to
evaluate the goodness of each member in the population. The
evaluation is based on cost function and each individual is
ranked based on its fitness value [11, 12 and 13]. The cycle
of random initial population also known as generations can
represent as following steps [13]:
 Each member in the population was evaluated using
objective function which each individual is ranked base
on its fitness.
 The population will undergo the reproduction which one
or more parents are chosen stochastically in the system
at each iterations. But, only the individual with the best
fitness value has higher probability in contributing the
offspring.
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA. Downloaded on November 14,2023 at 04:59:56 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 The selected parents was applied genetic operators such
selection, mutation and crossover to produce the
offspring.
 Then, the new offspring produce by selected parents are
inserted into the population and the process will be
repeated until a termination criterion is satisfied. As
(2) stated by Doung et. al. the satisfied criterion might be a
maximum number of iterations or it might be that the
score of a potential solution must lie within a certain
boundary [14].
Selection, crossover and mutation are genetic operators
of GA for generating a new population. The selection
utilized to determine which solution should be kept and
discarded. The crossover process takes two individuals to
produce another two new individuals whereas, the mutation
process to alter one individual to produce a single new
solution. This genetic operator working repeated until the
termination criterion meets the goals [14]. Working principle
of GA used in this study is shown in Figure 3.
(3)
Figure 3. The working princple of GA.
V. ACTIVE VIBRATION CONTROL
In this section, development of control schemes for
suppression vibration of flexible plate is presented. The
block diagram of proportional derivative control scheme is
shown in Figure 4. G, P, FS and KC represents the transfer
function of actuator, flexible plate, sensor and controller
gain respectively. The developed controller is tuned to
minimize the error between the reference value and its
actual value until reached at minimum value. The PD
parameters were determined in this research using auto
tuning function in Matlab software. Initially, the reference
input is set with zero value in order to achieve the zero
cancellation. The input of actuator known as –FSKCV
whereas the output of actuator known as FG = -GFSKC V.
Hence, the summation force fed into the system is given by:
F = FG + FD = -GFSKCV + FD (4)
Where FD is known as disturbance force. Thus, the output of
the system (Acceleration of the flexible plate), V can be
described as:
V = PFD  
1 (5)
 1  GF K P 
 S C 
111

Figure 4. Block diagram for AVC.
The acceleration of flexible plate can be reduced by
adjusting the controller parameters. By referring Eq. (5),
when the value of KC is increase, the value of (1/1+GFSKCP)
will tend to zero. So, the acceleration of V will decrease and
the amplitude of vibration is reduced [5, 15 and 16]. For the
simulation purpose, transfer function of linear sensor and
linear actuator is assumed unity. Then, Eq. (5) can be
expressed as:
V = PFD  1 
 1  K P 
 C 
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Analytical Results for Mode of Vibrations
The performance of GA modeling developed in this
study will be compared in term of estimating the first mode
of vibration between analytical and simulation results. The
analytical calculation of mode of vibration for flexible plate
with free-free-clamped-clamped edges boundary condition
as followed equation (7) [17, 18]. The details of flexible
plate specifications for analytical calculation as listed in
Table I. Table II presented the value of constant  and
2 GA Modeling
natural frequency obtained for the first five mode of
vibration from calculation.
B. Modeling using Genetic Algorithm(GA)
There were 4000 input-output data sets acquired from
the experimental study. The data sets were divided into two
parts which the first 3000 data sets were used for train the
model whereas the last 1000 data sets were used for test the
performance of developed model. The developed model was
validated using mean square error (MSE), one step-ahead
prediction (OSA) and correlation tests. Since, there is no
prior knowledge on the actual model of flexible plate,
heuristic method was used to identify the best model order
of GA algorithm. The model was tuned properly by varying
the orders, number of individuals, number of generations,
crossover and mutation rate.
The best model order was found to be order 4 in 100
individuals at 600th generation, crossover rate 0.7 and
mutation rate 0.03. The best and lowest mean square error
were achieved for GA identification are 0.0030644 and
0.0029 for training and testing data respectively. Correlation
tests were carried out to determine its effectiveness and it
(6) was found that the developed model within 95% confidence
level. Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8 are the output of the actual and
predicted signal, error of prediction, spectral density of the
prediction and convergence of identification. Table III
shows the comparison for the first five modes of vibrations
between analytical calculation and developed system. The
corresponding transfer function for flexible plate system
obtained as
 0.1751s 3  123.3s 2  224.7 s  1.529  104
s 4  0.3107 s 3  992.5s 2  262.5s  5513
TABLE III. COMPARISON MODE OF VIBRATION BETWEEN ANALYTICAL
AND SIMULATION RESULTS
Mode Measured Value (Hz)
(Hz) % Error
1 5.23 5.04 3.63

2 8.56 10.05 17.34

ij 2 Eh 3
f ij  i, j  1,2,3....n (7) 3 14.42 15.05 4.36
2a 2 12 h(1  v 2 ) 4 19.26 19.49 1.19

where f is natural frequency, E is modulus of elasticity, h is 5 22.90 25.06 9.43

thickness,  is lambda, v is poison ratio,  is density and a

is length of flexible plate. C. Control Results
The effectiveness of proposed controller in this research
TABLE II. VALUE OF CONSTANT  AND NATURAL FREQUENCY FOR
2
is validated by considering the ability of scheme to suppress
DIFFERENT MODE OF VIBRATION
the unwanted vibration on the flexible plate system. The
Mode 1 2 3 4 5 discussion in this topic will be highlighted on the
2
performance of Proportional Derivative (PD) control
 22.17 36.30 61.15 81.67 97.08
scheme proposed with applied a sinusoidal input
Frequency (Hz) 5.23 8.56 14.42 19.26 22.90 disturbance force. The proposed controller is test and
developed in the Matlab environment. The PD parameters of
flexible plate system were obtained using auto tuning

112
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA. Downloaded on November 14,2023 at 04:59:56 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
function Matlab software are K P  0.9786 and
in
K D  0.4536 .
The analysis was carried out via spectral attenuation and
the amplitude can be directly seen from its resonance
modes. Figs 9 and 10 show the corresponding results for PD
control scheme in time domain and frequencies domain
respectively. The attenuation values obtained by PD control
scheme are 112.93 dB, 110.54 dB, 112.19 dB, 112.41 dB
and 107.77 dB for the mode 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. It
is notice that the PD control scheme proposed has
successfully attenuated system vibration at the first mode of
vibration which is the dominant mode of the structure. The Figure 7. Spectral density of prediction signal.
spectral attenuation obtained was summarized as shown in
Table IV. From Figs 9 and 10, PD control scheme proposed
in this study has proven its capability to suppress the
unwanted vibration on the flexible plate system.
TABLE IV. THE SPECTRAL ATTENUATION OF RESONANCE MODES

Type of Attenuation mode (dB)

Disturbance 1 2 3 4 5
Sinusoidal
112.93 110.54 112.19 112.41 107.77
force

Figure 8. The convergence of GA identification.

Figure 5. The output of the actual and predicted signal.

Figure 9. Vibration supression of flexible plate system in time domain.

Figure 6. Error of prediction signal.

Figure 10. Spectral attenuation achieved by PD control scheme.

113
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA. Downloaded on November 14,2023 at 04:59:56 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

VII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
This paper presented and discussed the dynamic
characterization of flexible plate structure using Genetic
Algorithm (GA). The developed model was evaluated and
the performance of the model has been assessed. The
developed model was presented lowest mean squared
error (MSE) in this studied which is 0.0030644. Besides,
GA modeling also has performed better in term of
estimating the first mode of vibration which is the
dominant mode of the structure with only 3.63%. In this
paper also has presented development of PD controller
using Active Vibration Control (AVC) technique. The
analysis was carried out via spectral attenuation and it is
notice that the PD control scheme proposed has
successfully attenuated system vibration at the first mode
of vibration with 112.93 dB.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to thank the Ministry of Higher
Education (MOHE) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
(UTM) for providing the research grant and facilities. This
research is supported using UTM Research University
grant, Vote No. 04H17.
REFERENCES
[1] I. Z. Mat Darus and M. O. Tokhi “Parametric and non-
parametric identification of a two dimensional flexible
structure”, Journal of Low Frequency Noise Vibration and
Active Control, 25 (2) , pp. 119-143.
[2] Saad MS, Jamaluddin H, Darus IZM. Iterative algorithm
for active vibration control of flexible beam. International
Review of Mechanical Engineering. 2012; 6(1): 61-73.
[3] I. Z. Mat Darus and M. O. Tokhi, “Genetic algorithm active
vibration control of flexible plate”, Proceedings of ISSS
2007: The 51st Annual Conferences of The International
Society For The Systems Sciences, Tokyo Institute of
Technology, Ookayama, Tokyo, Japan, pp 613-626, 5-10
August 2007
[4] M. O. Tokhi and M. A. Hossain, “Self-tuning active
vibration control of flexible beam structures”, Research
Report no. 531, Department of Automatic Control and
Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield,
Sheffield, UK, 1994.
[5] I. Z. Mat Darus., F.M. Aldebrez, & M.O. Tokhi, 2004,
"Parametric modelling of a twin rotor system using genetic
algorithms", International Symposium on Control,
Communications and Signal Processing, ISCCSP, pp. 115..
[6] I. Z. Mat Darus and M. O. Tokhi, “Adaptive active
vibration control of a flexible plate structure using genetic
algorithms”, Proceedings of the Sixteenth International
Conference on Systems Engineering, ICSE2003, Coventry,
UK, 2, pp. 473 – 477, 9-11 September 2003.
[7] S. Julai and M. O. Tokhi, “SISO and SIMO active vibration
control of a flexible plate structure using real-coded genetic
algorithm”, Proceeding of IEEE 9th International
Conference on Cybernetic Intelligent Systems (CIS),
Reading, United Kingdom.
[8] I.Z.M Darus, Al-Khafaji AAM. Non-parametric modelling
of a rectangular flexible plate structure. Eng Appl Artif
Intell. 2012;25(1):94-106.
114
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA. Downloaded on November 14,2023 at 04:59:56 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
[9] M. S. Hadi, M. H. Hashim, and I. Z. Mat Darus, “Genetic
modeling of a rectangular flexible plate system with free-
free-clamped-clamped (FFCC) edges”, Proceeding of 2012
IEEE Conference on Control, Systems and Industrial
Informatics, Bandung, Indonesia, 2012.
[10] A. Z. Mohamad Sofi, “Parametric system identification and
active vibration control of vibrational structures using
genetic algorithm”, Master Thesis Department of Applied
Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia, 2007.
[11] I. Z. Mat Darus, F. M. Aldebrez and M. O. Tokhi,
“Parametric modeling of a twin rotor system using genetic
algorithms”, Proceedings of 1st IEEE International
Symposium on Control, Communications and Signal
Proceeding, Hammamet, Tunisia, 21-24 March 2004.
[12] MS Hadi, IZ Mat Darus, Intelligence swarm model
optimization of flexible plate structure system.
International Review of Automatic Control. 2013;6(3):322-
31.
[13] S. Panda, and N. P. Padhy, “Comparison of particle swarm
optimization and genetic algorithm for facts-based
controller design”, International Journal of Applied Soft
Computing, 8, pp. 1418-1427, 2008. Science Direct,
Elsevier Ltd.
[14] V. Doung, and A. Stubberud, “System identification by
genetic algorithm”, Proceeding of IEEEAC on Aerospace
Conference Proceedings, CA, USA, 5, pp. 2331-2337, 9-16
March 2002.
[15] M. S. Saad, H. Jamaluddin and I. Z. Mat Darus, “Active
vibration control of flexible beam system using
proportional control scheme in finite difference simulation
platform”, Proceeding of IEEE 4th International Conference
on Modeling, Simulation and Applied Optimization
(ICMSAO), Kuala Lumpur, 19-21 April 2011.
[16] M. F. Hassan, M. Mailah, R. Junid and N. A. Alang,
“Vibration suppression of a handheld tool using intelligent
active force control (afc),” Proceedings of the World
Congress on Engineering, London (U.K.), 2010.
[17] E. Md. Yusup, “Evaluation of an active force control for
flexible structure”, Master Thesis Department of Applied
Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia, 2010.
[18] M. R. Safizadeh, I. Z. Mat Darus, and M. Mailah,
“Calculating the frequency modes of flexible square plate
using finite element and finite difference methods.”
Proceedings of the IEEE Asia Modelling Symposium 2010:
4th Asia International Conference on Mathematical
Modelling and Computer Simulation, KLCC, Kuala
Lumpur, 2010.