An experimental study to swing up and control a pendulum with two reaction wheels

Abstract

An experimental study is discussed on a strategy that combines on-off and sliding mode control to swing up and control a pendulum with two reaction wheels in the upright position. The control scheme uses only one reaction wheel at a time, adapting the control law to turn off one of the control actions. The design takes into account the plant limitations, thus justifying the combination of the two strategies. The mechanical differences between the standard reaction wheel pendulum configuration and the one studied in this paper are pointed out to explain the use and the operation of the controller. Additionally, two cases are studied to verify experimentally the performance of the controller designed using low-cost hardware for real-time tests.