Balas, Gary J.Doyle, John C.2008-06-182008-06-181989-06Balas, G. J. and Doyle, J. C. (1990). "Identification of Flexible Structures for Robust Control." IEEE Control Systems Magazine. 10(4), 51-58.https://hdl.handle.net/11299/37273©1989 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.This article documents our experience with modeling and identification of an experimental flexible structure for the purpose of control design, with the primary aim being to motivate some important research directions in this area. Initially, a multi-input/multi-output model of the structure is generated using the finite element method. This model is inadequate for control design, due to its large variation from the experimental data. Next, Chebyshev polynomials are employed to fit the data with single-input/multli-output (SIMO) transfer function models. Combining these SIMO models leads to a multi-input/multi-output (MIMO) model with more modes than the original finite element model. To find a physically motivated model, an ad hoc model reduction technique which uses a priori knowledge of the structure is developed. The ad hoc approach is compared with balanced realization model reduction to determine its benefits. Descriptions of the errors between the model and experimental data are formulated for robust control design. Plots of select transfer function models and experimental data are included.en-USConference Paper