Modeling, simulation, and construction of a furuta pendulum test-bed

This paper presents a Furuta pendulum as a test-bed to experimentally validate automatic control strategies or theoretical concepts associated with nonlinear systems. Herein, the modeling, simulation, and construction of a Furuta pendulum test-bed are introduced step-by-step. The development of the Furuta pendulum mathematical model is achieved by using Lagrange equations of motion. In contrast with other works, the development of this model includes an analysis of the system kinematics. Also, a numerical simulation of the mathematical model is performed via Matlab-Simulink. Furthermore, with the purpose of presenting a different tool for the modeling and simulation of dynamic systems, a graphical model and a graphical simulation of the Furuta pendulum are carried out by means of Working Model 3D. Moreover, a computer aided design of the system under study is accomplished through SolidWorks, based on such a design a test-bed is built. With the intention of verifying that the test-bed built behaves according to the models (numerical one and graphical one) presented herein, experiments with the test-bed in open-loop are carried out by using Matlab-Simulink, ControlDesk, and a DS1104 board from dSPACE.