Active vibration control is an effective way of increasing robustness of the design to meet the stringent accuracy requirements for space structures. This paper presents the results of active damping realized by a piezoelectric active member to control the vibration of a four-bay four-longern aluminum truss structure with cantilever boundary. The active member, which utilizes a piezoelectric actuating unit and an integrated load cell, is designed for vibration control of the space truss structures. Active damping control is realized using direct velocity feedback around the active member. The placement of the active member as one of the most important factor of affecting the control system performance, is also investigated by modal dissipation energy ratio as indicator. The active damping effectiveness is evaluated by comparing the closed-loop response with the open loop response.
