Numerical control of impact dynamics of inverted pendulum through optimal feedback strategies

The problem of controlling the impact dynamics of an inverted pendulum is a ddressed. Starting from the optimal excitation for avoiding chaos obtained in previous works, interest is in increasing its practical performance and its application range.; Two different implementations of the control proced ure are developed in order to fulfil specific technical requirements of the system dynamics. They involve alternate use of one-side optimal and harmon ic excitations, aimed at increasing the time spent by the hitting mass in t he controlled potential well; or of right and left optimal excitations, aim ed at reducing the scattered nature of the response as synthesized by the n umber of jumps between the two wells. The two implementations realize feedb ack control strategies which, however, require only minor information on th e dynamics. Numerical simulations are performed to show their effectiveness , to compare them on a local and global basis, and to describe qualitative and quantitative aspects of the two requirements achieved with the proposed strategies. (C) 2000 Academic Press.