Centralized Control

   Control of the inverted pendulum was first done using two potentiometers on the cart, one for the rod angle and one for the cart position, read through a DT2811 A/D card on a computer. This same computer determined the appropriate control output and sent it back to the cart. A network was not used since one computer handled sensors and control.

   Next, a camera was added to monitor the cart's position instead of using the 2nd potentiometer. This camera was also connected directly to the control computer. Rod angle was still measured using a potentiometer.

   Both stages of this controller worked well to stabilize the pendulum.

Equipment

• 1 - Computer running S.Ha.R.K. 1.5 Alpha

• 1 - DT2811 A/D card and cables

• Track & Cart & Rod & Power Module

Additional equipment to use camera:

• 1 - Framegrabber card

• 1 - Analog camera

• 1 - LED

Setup (showing optional camera)

Code

   Code for using potentiometers only can be found in folder demos/IPC_DT2811 and code for adding the camera can be found in folder demos/IPC_Camera of the S.Ha.R.K. code in the downloads section.