Stability analysis of a pneumatically actuated inverted pendulum

This paper deals with the stabilization of an inverted pendulum on cart; the latter is pneumatically actuated by a double acting cylinder controlled by low cost proportional valves. In particular, a numerical model of whole system is developed in order to find the ability of the pneumatic actuation in stabilizing the pendulum and evaluate its bandwidth. A cascade of two control loops (the inner one for the pendulum angle, the outer one for the cart displacement) are analyzed and proper compensators are defined. The possibility of introducing an additional loop to control the force exerted by the actuator on the cart is evaluated.