Summary
As the auxiliary mass of an active mass damper/driver (AMD) control system in a high‐rise building has excessive strokes and its relative velocities are in the same direction with the strokes, the auxiliary mass probably collides with its anti‐collision device. As a result, the structural responses increase and even the structural safety is endangered. In this paper, a variable gain state‐feedback control system is proposed to limit the strokes and relative velocities of the auxiliary mass, so as to ensure the safety of the system. Firstly, the limited state of the auxiliary mass is defined, and a regional pole assignment algorithm that utilizes only a damping factor is realized as a control gain. Then the relationship between the control gain corresponding to the stroke and its threshold limit value is deduced. A suitable threshold limit value is chosen to reduce the strokes and the relative velocities. Finally, the performance characteristics of the control systems with or without stroke limit are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the controller limits the strokes effectively on the premise of guaranteeing the control effects and the AMD parameters. To verify its effectiveness, the proposed methodology is also applied to an experiment of a four‐storey frame.