Hybrid control for a class of underactuated mechanical systems

This paper considers a stabilizing hybrid scheme to control a class of underactuated mechanical systems. The hybrid controller consists of a collection of state feedback controllers plus a discrete-event supervisor. When the continuous-state hits a switching boundary, a new controller is applied to the plant. Lyapunov theory is used to determine the switching boundaries and to guarantee the stability of the closed-loop hybrid system. This approach is applied to the well-known swing up and balancing control problem of the inverted pendulum.