Particle Swarm‐Optimized Robust <i>H</i> _<i>∞</i> Control With Frequency Domain Evaluation for Real‐Time Hybrid Simulation

Real‐time hybrid simulation is an advanced structural testing methodology that divides a structural system into a numerical substructure for components with well‐known behavior and a physical substructure for complex nonlinear components. To address synchronization challenges between numerical and experimental substructures, this study introduces a particle swarm optimization algorithm integrated with frequency‐domain evaluation indices, aiming to automate the design of H ∞ controllers while minimizing manual tuning through adaptive fitness functions targeting time delay and amplitude error. A self‐centering viscous damper, characterized by strong nonlinearity, is utilized as the experimental substructure in virtual real‐time hybrid simulation as well as laboratory tests for both single‐actuator and dual‐actuator scenarios. Both computational simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed particle swarm‐optimized robust H ∞ control method significantly improves actuator tracking accuracy and system robustness, especially under parameter perturbations and various excitation frequencies.