The High Fidelity Linear Cart (HFLC) consists of
a cart equipped with a 400 Watt, 3 phase brushless
motor. The motor is equipped with a pinion that
drives against a toothed rack such that the cart
moves in a linear fashion. The motor shaft is coupled
to an encoder such that cart position can be measured.
The cart is equipped with two unpowered joints instrumented
with optical encoders. These joints can be used
to mount up to two rotating pendula directly on
the cart to perform a variety of experiments of
incremental complexity. One pendulum sensor is mounted
directly on top of the cart such that the rotation
of the pendulum rod is limited to +/- 0.55 radians.
The other pendulum sensor is equipped with an extended
shaft such that a pendulum can be suspended to perform
self erecting experiments.
The HFLC System contains all the mechanical components
required to perform the following ten experiments:
1.
Linear speed control
2.
Linear position control
3.
Single inverted pendulum
4.
Self erecting single pendulum
5.
Dual inverted pendulum
6.
Double inverted pendulum
7.
Triple inverted pendulum
8.
Single pendulum gantry
9.
Double pendulum gantry
10.
Triple pendulum gantry
Switching from one configuration to another is attained
in seconds. All system parameters are fully documented.
Nonlinear and linear mathematical models as well
as sample functional linear controllers are supplied
for each of the experiments listed above. You can
even be creative and attempt to control a new configuration
such as a double pendulum on one joint and a gantry
on the other : now balance the double pendulum and
dampen the swinging of the gantry at the same time!
