Stabilization of Inertia Wheel Pendulum using Multiple Sliding Surfaces Control technique

The design of control laws for underactuated mechanical systems is challenging as their underactuated nature, poses problems in exact feedback linearization. This paper considers the stabilization problem of inertia-wheel pendulum, a widely studied benchmark nonlinear underactuated mechanical system. A novel nonlinear controller design for inertia wheel pendulum is presented; fusing recently introduced multiple surface controls with control Lyapunov function. The design procedure is simpler and more intuitive than already presented designs. Stability of the controller and advantages over dynamic surface control, energy shaping and backstepping controllers are analyzed theoretically and verified using numerical simulations.