An efficient method for the solution of Riccati equation in structural control implementation

An efficient method for the solution of the Riccati equation in structural control implementation is presented in this paper. Through order reduction and appropriate selection of weighting functions, the solution time for the Riccati equation is dramatically reduced as no iteration is involved in the solution process. This achievement is very useful and sometimes critical in the structural control as the solution process of the Riccati equation is the most time-consuming part of any optimal control problem. It requires an inordinate amount of processing time when applied to large optimal control problems. As is well known, any time delay in structural control will cause unsynchronized application of the control forces and this can not only reduce the effectiveness of a structural active control system, but may also cause instability in the control system. The proposed method is easy to implement and high in efficiency and can significantly reduce the time delay in structural control implementation. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.