Simulation and Implementation of Swinging-Up and Sliding Positioning Control of an Inverted Pendulum System

The inverted pendulum system is recognized as one of the most challenging dynamic systems. The complication becomes even more involved when switching from the downside to upside configurations by reciprocating motions of the base cart is intended. Considering the large range of motion, the swinging-up control of the pendulum is not achievable through linearization and conventional nonlinear control methods do not apply due to the under-actuated character of the system. In the present research, an energy-based method with sliding control aspects is designed that assures a smoothly transition from the lower stable to upper unstable equilibrium state. This approach permits to design a proper Lyapunov candidate established on physical intuition. The controller permits to reach and stabilize to the new state while tracking a defined path with minimal effort simultaneously. The dynamics of the actuator has been included in the controller to reach a realistic model. The proposed method is implemented on an experimental apparatus that perfectly supports the simulation results.