Pneumatic Inverted Pendulum

his is the classic inverted pendulum control problem, but using a pneumatic cylinder as the actuator instead of the more typical servo electric motor.

The servo pneumatic system is made possible by the ultra-high speed of Enfield’s proportional valves, coupled with a double-PD (essentially a full-state) fully analog off-the-shelf controller.

Items used:

– (1) Enfield Technologies LS-V05C high-speed proportional valve.
– (2) Enfield Technologies LS-C41 PID analog controllers (only PD configurations actually used).
– (1) Enfield Technologies LS-C30 sensor interface (for calibration of angle sensor signal)
– (1) 1.25″-bore, 18″-stroke Bimba pneumatic cylinder.
– (1) Balluff 450-mm MicroPulse AT-style non-contact position transducer.
– (1) BEI 60-deg non-contact angle sensor