FPGA Control of a Mobile Inverted Pendulum Robot

The inverted pendulum is a classic problem in dynamics and control theory due to its inherently unstable nature. In the system tested, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are used for the implementation of control and sensor fusion algorithms in the inertial navigation system of a Mobile Inverted Pendulum (MIP) robot. Additionally, the performance of digital PID control and Kalman filter algorithms are tested in this FPGA system. The test platform for tuning Kalman filter is designed using optical encoders as a standard reference. PWM signal generation and quadrature phase decoding of encoder pulses is accomplished using hardware description language in FPGA. The values from the inertial sensors and quadrature phase decoded values are fed into MicroBlaze, a 32-bit soft-core RISC processor, within the FPGA. The overall system demonstrates the use of low cost inertial sensors to balance a two wheeled robot. The system is presently able to balance on its own and it also serves as an extremely reconfigurable FPGA based platform to facilitate future modifications, updates and enhancements with more complex control and sensor fusion techniques.Key Terms: Mobile Inverted Pendulum System; Inverted Pendulum Robot; Inertial Navigation System; FPGA; Kalman Filter; PID Control; Soft-core ProcessorDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v8i1-2.5111Journal of the Institute of EngineeringVol. 8, No. 1&2, 2010/2011Page: 188-196Uploaded Date: 20 July, 2011