Feedback linearization control of the inertia wheel pendulum

Abstract

In this paper, two feedback linearizing control laws for the stabilization of the Inertia Wheel Pendulum are derived: a full-state linearizing controller, generalizing the existing results in literature, with friction ignored in the description and an inputoutput linearizing control law, based on a physically motivated definition of the system output. Experiments are carried out on a laboratory test bed with significant friction in order to test and verify the suggested performance and the results are presented and discussed. The main point to be made as a consequence of the experimental evaluation is the fact that actually the asymptotic stabilization was not achieved, but rather a limit cycling behavior was observed for the full-state linearizing controller. The input-output linearizing controller was able to drive the pendulum to the origin, with the wheel speed settling at a finite value.