Active Vibration Control of a Rotating Mechanical System with a Rigid Coupling using Active Disturbance Rejection Control

The work aims to develop an active control method for mitigating torsional vibration of a rotating mechanical system with a rigid coupling, driven by an electric motor, particularly for suppressing vibration associated with its mechanical resonances. It is commonly known that torsional oscillations in a rotating system, which is normally used for various power transmission systems, can generate significant levels of vibration and noise. In this work, therefore, an active control system that was based on the Active Disturbance Rejection Control approach was utilized to develop an active control system that was robust against uncertainties associated with the internal dynamics and external disturbances affecting the system. The dynamic interactions between the inertias of the electric motor and the load, which were connected through elastic shafts and a rigid coupling, were investigated. The Extended State Observer was used to estimate the generalized disturbance consisting of not only the external disturbances but also the disturbances associated with internal dynamics of the rotating system. The effectiveness of the developed controller was demonstrated, which showed that in the case of the varying load inertia, the control system could still perform well in mitigating the torsional vibration.