Active damping device and design method

A method for reducing a vibration of a structure body of an object via a damping device, comprising:

• detecting the vibration of the structure via a plurality of vibration detection units comprising at least one piezoelectric sensor, temporarily placed on the structure body
• receiving a signal from the plurality of vibration detection units, via a control device, the signal being indicative of the detected vibration, and via a signal input/output device, further receiving a driving force generation signal from outside that is indicative of a force that is used to dampen the detected vibration, the control device outputs a control signal being related to the driving force generation signal,
• a plurality of vibration generation actuators, temporarily placed on the structure body, that receive the control signal and initiate a distortion to the structure body to reduce the detected vibration based on the control signal,
• measuring the driving force generation signal and subsequent detected vibrations for each combination of the vibration detection units and the vibration generation actuators by switching the plurality of vibration detection units and the plurality of vibration generation actuators;
• calculating a list of transfer characteristics via a signal analyzing device, sending the list of transfer characteristics to a display device;
• displaying the list of the calculated transfer characteristics on the display device;
• and
• selecting a combination of the vibration detection units and the vibration generation actuators which is considered as the most appropriate combination among the combinations by an operator;
• wherein, the operator is capable of changing a control parameter in the control device for the selected combination of the vibration detection units and the vibration generation actuators,
• wherein at least one of a second location of the plurality of vibration detection units and a second location of the plurality of the vibration generation actuators is determined based on the calculated transfer characteristics, and
• wherein the transfer characteristics are indicative of how vibration amplitude of the object and phase of the object change depending on frequency.