LQG Regulator for Control Moment Gyroscope based Balancing System

Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) is used extensively in many mechanical balancing systems because of its power-efficient operation. This study aims to explore the balancing capability of CMG when using the Linear–Quadratic–Gaussian (LQG) regulator. A two rigid body model physical system including a CMG and a single degree of freedom balancing object is modeled. LQG-based balancing control system with Kalman filter for estimating the state of the balancing object is developed. Simulation results show that the LQG regulator achieves better performance than the conventional PID one in terms of reaction time, noise and weight. An experimental setup shows that the CMG is able to balance a heavy system with a small tilt angle. The system can even keep balance when an external force is applied thanks to the counter torque provided by the CMG.