Abstract
The MIMO controller proposed in the paper simultaneously determines optimal placements for multiple actuators, sensors and appropriate output feedback gains. The controller design is carried out in the digital domain hence typically lower sampling rates can be used at the implementation stage. A method of exponentially penalizing the persistent states of the system is used to obtain faster settling times in the presence of external disturbances. The nonlinearities associated with actuator saturation due to force/stroke limitation is considered explicitly in the optimization. The algorithm does not require closed form expressions for modal shapes. Hence it is applicable to a wider class of 2D structures that do not readily fall into any regular geometric shape.