The inverted pendulum is used to test new control theories on an inherently unstable system. The experiment consists of wooden pendulum mounted on a moving cart. The pendulum and cart have one degree of freedom (i.e the cart can only move back and forth along the track). The control objective is normally to balance the pendulum with the cart in the middle of the track. This is a single input multi output system. One sensor is mounted at the base of the pendulum to measure the angle of rotation. A second sensor is mounted on the drive pulley to measure the cart position. The control signal is used to position the cart.

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