Nonlinear control via approximate input-output linearization: the ball and beam example

Approximate input-output linearization of nonlinear systems which fail to have a well defined relative degree is studied. For such systems, a method for constructing approximate systems that are input-output linearizable is provided. The analysis presented is motivated through its application to a common undergraduate control laboratory experiment-the ball and beam-where it is shown to be more effective for trajectory tracking than the standard Jacobian linearization.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>