An Automatic Self-Tuning Control System Design for an Inverted Pendulum

A control problem of an inverted pendulum in the presence of parametric uncertainty has been investigated in this paper. In particular, synthesis and implementation of an automatic self-tuning regulator for a real inverted pendulum have been given. The main cores of the control system are a swing-up control method and a stabilisation regulator. The first one is based on the energy of an inverted pendulum, whereas the second one uses the linear-quadratic regulator (LQR). Because not all of the inverted pendulum parameter values are exactly known an automatic self-tuning mechanism for designed control system has been proposed. It bases on a devised procedure for identifying parameters. The entire derived control system enables effective a pendulum swing-up and its stabilisation at an upper position. The performance of the proposed control system has been validated by simulation in Matlab/Simulink environment with the use of the inverted pendulum model as well as through experimental works using the constructed inverted pendulum on a cart.