Inducing oscillations in an inertia wheel pendulum via two-relays controller: Theory and experiments

A tool for generating a self-excited oscillations for an inertia wheel pendulum by means of a variable structure controller is proposed. The original system is transformed into the normal form for exact linearization. The design procedure, based on Describing Function (DF) method, allows for finding the explicit expressions of the two-relays controller gain parameters in terms of the desired frequency and amplitude. Necessary condition for orbital asymptotic stability of the output of the exactly linearized system is derived. Performance issues of the system with self-excited oscillations are validated with experiments.