SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCES

PROJECT REPORT
ENGINEERING MECHANICS
SUBMITTED BY:
NAME CMS ID
Amna Noorulain Siddiqui 310652
Areeba Hasan Sheikh 296717
Duaa Ahmed Raza Gillani 306212
Raja Basit Raza 294216
Hassan Tariq Rajpoot 283509

SUBMITTED TO: Sir Kamran Zeb

SUBMITTED ON: January 5th, 2021
 INVERTED PENDULUM

Introduction to a Pendulum:

A pendulum, derived from the Latin word "pendulus," meaning "hanging," is a body that hangs
from a fixed point which, when pulled back and released, swings back and forth.Pendulum is
body suspended from a fixed point so that it can swing back and forth under the influence of
gravity. Pendulums are used to regulate the movement of clocks because the interval of time for
each complete oscillation, called the period, is constant. The formula for the period T of a
pendulum is T = 2π Square root of√L/g, where L is the length of the pendulum and g is the
acceleration due to gravity.

Types of Pendulum:

 A compound pendulum
 Schuler pendulum
 Spherical pendulum
 Simple Pendulum
 Double Pendulum
 Inverted Pendulum

Inverted Pendulum:

The main purpose is to balance an inverted pendulum. The case that we are going to discuss is
when a pendulum is attached to a wheel which can move backward and forward in one direction.
The movement of the cart aids in balancing the pendulum in standing position. Now we have to
make sure by controlling the movement of the wheel speedily and precisely that the pendulum is
always in upright position. If the wheel isn’t moved to balance it, the whole system becomes
 unbalanced and the pendulum falls over. Which shows that even the slightest disturbance causes
the pendulum to fall over and thus this system is dependently unstable. Some kind of control is
very important to maintain a balanced pendulum. An ideal controller would keep the pendulum
balanced with very little change in the angle, θ, or wheel displacement, q.

Diagram of a wheel with a pendulum

 Equations:
 From Lagrange's equations:
The equations of motion can be derived using Lagrange's equations. We refer to the
figure above -acting forces are gravity and an external force F in the x-direction.
Define q(t) to be the position of the cart.
Kinetic T of this system can be given by
T=1/2Mv12 +1/2mv22
v1 is the velocity of the wheel
v2 is the velocity of mass (m).
if we express v1 and v2 in terms on q and θ, we get
 Simplifying

 Newton’s approach:
Newton’s second law of motion can be used to derive the equation of motion.

If we apply ΣF = Ma on the stick and wheel separately, we get

F + N = Ma

N = Mw2l + sin θ − ma − mαl cos θ

Now we simplify to eliminate N (which is the horizontal reaction force between the stick and the
wheel)

F = (m + M) a – mw2l cos θ + mαl cos θ

We apply ΣT = Iα about the point of contact, which results in

mgl sin θ = ml2 (α + a cos θ) (where mgl sinθ is the external torque on the mass m about the
point of contact between the wheel and stick and ml 2 is the moment of inertia about this point)

mg sinθ = mαl + ma cos θ

g sin θ − αl − cos θ = 0 (2)

And N is eliminated.

 Dynamic Model of the System

Defining the variables as cart position (𝑥1), pendulum position relative to the

horizontal (𝑥2), cart speed (𝑥3) and angular speed of the pendulum (𝑥4). The dynamic

equations of the system are:

(m c + m p)( x 1 + 𝑙 sin x 2) ′′ = 𝑈 – T c

(m c +m p) (𝑙 cos x 2 ) ′′ = 𝑉 − (m c + m p)𝑔

𝐽 x 2 ′′ = (𝑇𝑐 − 𝑈) 𝑙 cos x 2+ 𝑉𝑙 sin x 2− D p

Where:

𝑚𝑐

: cart mass

𝑚𝑝 : pendulum mass

𝑙 : distance between both mass centers

𝑈 : force applied to the cart

𝑇𝑐

: cart friction with the guide

𝑉 : normal force

𝑔 : gravity force
 𝐽 : moment of inertia

𝐷𝑝 : pendulum friction torque with the axis

′′ : second derivative with respect to time

 System stabilization and control

The inverted pendulum is a simple system in which both stable and unstable state are easily
observed. The upward inverted state is unstable, though it has long been known that a simple
rigid pendulum can be stabilized in its inverted state by oscillating its base at an angle. We made
the model to simulate the stabilization of the simple inverted pendulum.

The governing equation for this idealized mathematical model is given as

d
2

dt2 gl sin0 , where g is gravitational acceleration, 𝑙 is the length of the pendulum,
and 𝜃 is the angular displacement about downward vertical. If the pendulum starts at any given
angle, we can expect to see one of the following happen: the pendulum will oscillate about the
 downward angle, 0; it will continue to rotate around the pivot; or it will stay still, at 0,,
but at   any slight disturbance will cause the pendulum to swing downward.

Importance of inverted pendulum:

The concept of inverted pendulum has opened doors for new research and advancements in the
field of dynamics. In order to understand large infrastructures following the principles of
equilibrium, it is necessary for us to understand and visualize the working at small level.
Nowadays automotive and robotics industry has reached its peak. Self-driving cars and SUV's
have been developed which can balance themselves in every terrain.

Similarly, inverted pendulums also find their concept utilization in aerospace. Such as rockets
propulsions and spacecrafts.

Applications:
There are numerous applications of the inverted pendulum that include
 balancing systems.
 transport machines that need to balance objects
 systems that support walking for patients
 robots that are used in domestic and industrial use and in object transport using drones
 Even large scale constructions such as buildings are modeled as inverted pendulums
 Segway (two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transporter)