In this paper the performance of a piezoelectric sensor/actuator pair and selfsensing piezoelectric actuator on the investigation of vibration characteristics and active vibration control of a smart beam are presented. The performance of piezoelectric patches on actuation and sensing is evaluated by investigating the vibration characteristics of the smart beam via various excitation mechanisms and transduction systems. For active vibration suppression of the smart beam, robust controllers are designed and experimentally implemented by using a piezoelectric sensor/actuator pair and self-sensing piezoelectric actuator. Finally, experimental results for active control of free and the first-resonance forced vibration of the smart beam are presented.