Inverted Pendulum

Inverted Pendulum (New Class), Model IP/NC Inverted Pendulum, Model IP/NC, a control laboratory experiment from XdTech, is an interesting type of inverted pendulum. The conventional inverted pendulum experiments achieve stable vertical position of the pendulum, by moving the bottom (fulcrum) of the beam either in a linear fashion or along a curved trajectory. Magnitude and sense of this actuation would depend on the angle of the pendulum with respect to the vertical, and the angular velocity with which such a (disturbance) motion occurs.

In our inverted pendulum, the fulcrum of the pendulum is not moved at all! Instead an all new correction mechanism is employed. In IP/NC a motor-and-flywheel system is present on the top of the pendulum. When the pendulum beam executes a slight deviation from the vertical due to gravitational pull, the flywheel's angular acceleration is governed so as to impart a corrective torque to the system, pulling the pendulum back to its set-point. Thus, our inverted pendulum is an analogue of a satellite attitude control, rather than that of a rocket under booster operation! Being an unstable and non-linear system, the experiment has complex dynamics. Thus, the plant can be used for studies on adaptive control, variable structure control, and for developing fuzzy control algorithms.

The plant's component parts are machined from solid aluminum. The unit measures 10" [W] x 6" [D] x 14" [H] (250 x 150 x 350 mm) and weighs about 5.5 lbs (2.5 kg). The contoller operates from 110 V AC or 220 V AC.

The system includes the electromechanical system, an integrated cabinet comprising analog interface unit, DC power supply, and power amplifier, an IBM PC based controller using a multifunction DAQ card (PCI bus), and associated application software for implementing digital control under Matlab® Real Time Workshop environment.

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