Comparison of Linear and Nonlinear Controllers on a Mechatronic System

This technical paper presents the application of various control methods on a mechatronic laboratory setup of a rotary inverted pendulum. The full nonlinear dynamic model of the pendulum is obtained using Euler-Langrange method and it is further simplified for the purpose of designing different controllers for stabilization of the pendulum in the upright position. In particular, we compare two nonlinear control methods (sliding mode control and model predictive control) to two classical linear control methods (proportional-derivative control and linear-quadratic control). All considered control methods are briefly explained and corresponding controllers are derived and tested on the experimental setup.