Recent advances in sensing and control of flexible structures via piezoelectric materials technology

Due to their special characteristics, piezoelectric materials can be used in distributed behaviorsensing and control of flexible structures. These materials arc usually incorporated with the preci-sion sensing and control of highly adaptive intelligent structures. Many theoretical, numerical, andexperimental research activities treating piezoelectricity in sensing and control of various flexiblestructures have been carried out over the last decade This survey article aims at collecting the re-cent research studies in this important field It contains 336 references which are classified ac-cording to their applications. A brief theory and history of piezoelectricity is also presented.