Predication by extrapolation: an application of computer algebra in control

Concerns the identification of the analytic controllability properties of a multilink inverted pendulum. This can be done using low-order versions of the system (that is, those with few links). By extrapolating such results it is then possible to make some meaningful assertions on controllability for the more general case, and whilst the analysis is not fully symbolic in all parameters, it is presented in the light of prior work and demonstrates the kind of insight to which algebraic computation can lead. Very little literature exists on the control of the multilink system. The article is an extension of the work of Larcombe et al. (1994) on the quadrupole pendulum.