Active Vibration Isolation System

Active isolation systems offer a solution, which combines stiffness with a very short settling time. The most useful active systems employ inertial velocity in a feedback loop. (Inertial velocity can be measured for example by integration the signal from an accelerometer). A signal proportional to inertial velocity is very similar to a viscous damping force, but with the very important difference that the damping is relative to an inertial plane. So in contrast to the passive system, by increasing the damping, the system becomes ‘glued’ to the inertial plane which by definition means the system is isolated from the environment.