Design, Modeling and Stabilization of a Moment Exchange Based Inverted Pendulum

This paper summarizes the mechanical and control design concepts of an inverted or unstable pendulum where stabilization is achieved by a moment exchange generated by a controlled symmetric rotation of a rotational inertia attached to the pendulum. The proposed design of the pendulum has a fixed bottom rotation or point of support as opposed to the usual vertically or horizontally moving point of support to stabilize the pendulum, allowing for small form factor desktop design of an inverted pendulum experiment. The symmetry of the rotational inertia allows for stabilization of the pendulum without the need to control the position of the mass attached to the pendulum. The paper reviews the design considerations, dynamic modeling, system identification and control design strategy to stabilize the pendulum.