Control of unstable mechanical system Control of pendulum†

This paper relates to the design of a control system for a mechanical system which contains an unstable mode and to an experiment for demonstrating that the control theory may be applied to practical real systems. In this paper the object treated is the control of the pendulum-cart system, which has been studied by many control theorists and engineers as an inverted pendulum problem, and a composite control system is designed not only to stabilize the inverted pendulum but to swing the pendulum from the natural pendent position up to the inverted position, which is actually made. The experimental results are presented.