Inspiration
Goals
After seeing that video I wanted to learn more about this reaction wheel stabilized
system and get some basic experience designing control algorithms. With the added desire
to brush up on my EE skills I decided to embark on an effort to build the following:
- reaction wheel stabilization module for inverted pendulums (no swing up)
- LQR optimal control algorithm with quaternion based attitude specification
- brushless DC motors for reaction wheel torque
- battery powered electronics on PCB in small form factor
Controller Design
I performed this part in two stages: (1) single rotation axis with euler angles and
(2) full three axis control with quaternions. Each control algorthim utilized an LQR
controller. In the first stage I wrote my first LQR controller and simulated the physics
in 2D space. Adapting some code by toddisfleet, I was able to create a visualization of
the inverted pendulum and the one reaction wheel that stabilized it.
Stay tuned...