Support will be provided for a workshop devoted to control systems governed by partial differential equations and application of the theory to control and stabilization of large, flexible structures. There is currently great interest in control of large flexible structures because of the number of such structures requiring active control for acceptable performance. These include flexible arms of robots, large communication and intelligence satellites, orbiting platforms and power stations, and manned space stations. They are typically highly flexible, consisting of a large number of beam-like elements coupled together end-to-end in the form of a chain, with components mathematically modeled by large systems of ordinary and partial differential equations. The main purpose of the proposed workshop is to determine what the basic problems are in the control of flexible structures, what the current state of affairs in the application of pde techniques to these problems is, where this area of research is heading, and where should it be going.
