This is a preliminary study to provide useful information for the design of the control of a monocycle which is one of the intelligent movable robots. In this paper, the two-degree-of-freedom monocycle is modeled by an inverted pendulum with a controlling arm pivoted at its upper end. The controlling arm is rotated to give the pendulum restoring moment.
The feedback control systems for the model have been designed using two methods – the pole assignment and the optimal control, respectively. Simulations of the control systems designed with the above methods are carried out on a personal computer. Although the pendulum can be stabilized with either of these methods, it is found that the optimal control method is superior to the pole assignment one, because in the former the control system can be designed to be suitably corresponding to the design demands based on a definite criterion.
