Reaction Wheel Inverted Pendulum Control System

This paper deals with the design of a laboratory test bench and control system for maintaining an unstable equilibrium position of an inverted pendulum with a reaction wheel. A review of technical solutions in the field of stabilization of an inverted pendulums of this type is given in order to find out solutions for designing a prototype of the plant and its mathematical model. Proposed mathematical model showed the controllability of the plant with regulator. The prototype of the laboratory test bench of an inverted pendulum including the arm fixed in the bearing support in the base, a DC motor with a reduction gear, a Hall sensor, a reaction wheel on the shaft and a driver to provide the motor current, microcontroller control system to control the rotation of the motor shaft and, accordingly, to control the torque on the shaft to change the angle of inclination of the arm of the test bench was assembled. Experimental study of the designed laboratory test bench with PID controller was carried out. The tests showed that the proposed solution is controllable and the unstable equilibrium position could be maintained by rotation of the reaction wheel on the shaft of the electric motor.