10.1 - Inverted Pendulum

The project sponsor, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), wants to see students complete an inverted pendulum system that will periodically gain a new pendulum as the academic semester advances. Currently, the team has a cart that uses a v-belt and geared DC motor to move it along the track system. The Arduino reads the values of the encoder that the pendulum is attached to, processes the direction the pendulum is leaning to, then initiates the motor to adjust the cart appropriately. The pendulum can be relatively balanced but is not entirely stabilized during test runs. The group has also written code to create a swing-up, which will make the system completely autonomous. Due to the advancement of the pendulum programming thus far, there are designs of encoder mounts for the double and triple pendulum in production. Originally, the team wanted each pendulum to freely move 360 degrees of rotation, but due to unexpected axial weight on the encoders, the double and triple pendulums are now expected to have around 200 degrees of rotation.