This work addresses the solution to the problem of active vibration suppression of a cantilever beam using piezoelectric actuation. For this purpose, we are taking advantage of the effectiveness of the positive position feedback control strategy (PPF) in order to control first mode vibrations of the analyzed beam. This control technique is well-known in the literature as a modal control method for vibration attenuation. The PPF controller accomplishes its best performance if tuned properly to the characteristics of the structure to be controlled. According to this we are going to realize the modal analysis of the cantilever beam utilizing the finite element method in Ansys to determine the structural frequency corresponding to the first mode, which is used as PPF controller frequency. On the other hand, we shall obtain the state-space representation of the cantilever beam using the subspace identification method in frequency domain applying the fast fourier transformation (FFT). Furthermore, we will simulate the discrete-time PPF controller using Matlab/Simulink. Lastly, the simulink designed discrete-time PPF controller will be tested using an xPC Target real-time system. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.