Mechanical systems such as vehicle suspensions, robot manipulators, and spacecraft are often required to operate with high performances. Vibrations, which may quickly cause unacceptable system states, are perceived as the most important problems in mechanical system design.

Active vibration control (AVC) is one of the important branches of control theory and application. AVC mainly combines active vibration control mechanism with advanced control algorithms to improve system performance and reduce the influence of vibrations. Particularly, due to possible structural nonlinearities and uncertainties in mechanical systems, AVC is still the challenging problem in the field of engineering control.

The purpose of this special issue is to provide an opportunity for scientists, engineers, and practitioners to propose their latest theoretical and technological achievements in systems control, especially in the aforesaid aspects (AVC). All the submissions are expected to have original ideas and new approaches. Papers on presenting newly emerging fields are especially welcome. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• The mathematical modeling, vibration control, and fault diagnosis in mechanical systems such as:
• Vibration control in mechanical systems including vehicle suspension control, active building control, offshore structures, spacecraft control, and vibration control theories
• Modelling, optimization, and identification of mechanical vibration systems
• Smart sensors and actuators
• Advanced active vibration control algorithms (robust control, adaptive control, multiobjective control, quantitative feedback theory, soft computing methods, and intelligent control, etc.)
• Robust fault diagnosis, fault isolation, and fault tolerant control and their industrial applications

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mpe/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/mpe/vibra/ according to the following timetable: