Inverted Pendulum System

The inverted pendulum (IP) system is essential in the evaluation and comparison of various control theories. The inverted pendulum is used in simulations and experiments to show the performance of different controllers (e.g. PID, State Space and Fuzzy Controllers etc).

What is an Inverted Pendulum?

At some time you may have tried to balance a brush, bat or other object on your index finger or the palm of your hand? You had to constantly adjust the position of your hand to keep the object upright. An Inverted Pendulum does basically the same thing. However, it is limited in that it only moves in one dimension, while your hand could move up, down, sideways, etc. Take a look at the video provided to see exactly how the Inverted Pendulum works.

What is the IP used for?

Just as balancing with your hand, an Inverted Pendulum is an inherently unstable system. Force must be properly applied to keep the system intact. To achieve this, proper control theory is required. The Inverted Pendulum is an invaluable tool for the effective evaluation and comparison various control theories.