This paper presents the design of an undergraduate pendulum feedback control project. The project is low-cost, significantly less expensive than commercially-available systems, and the project based upon it requires, and hence reinforces, substantive understanding of the physics and control-theoretic aspects of the problem in order for students to complete it.
This paper presents the pedagogical purpose behind the project experience for the students and also many details of the physical design of the system and the software control system so that it will be straight-forward to replicate elsewhere. This paper is indented to contribute to the “CDIO Knowledge Library” to facilitate projects that implement the “design” and “implement” components of CDIO, with the future goal of extending the scope of the project to include the “conceive” and “operate” components. In order to accomplish this goal, a significant portion of this paper must present the technical aspects of the project which is integral with and shares equal footing with the broader pedagogical goals.