Ball On A Plate – Control System

Abstract

In this work an autonomous system for balancing and orbit control of a metal ball on a moving flat plate was developed, designed and successfully realized. The position detection of the ball is realized using a resistive touchpad on a glass plate. The panel can be tilted by two digital servo motors via a central universal joint in two solid angles. Both, position detection of the ball and motor drive require a control algorithm which was implemented on a microcontroller board. The mathematical modeling of the dynamic system behavior consisting of the servo drive, mechanics of ball and structure plus the touchpad have been verified by measurements. Based on this analytical model a classical PID controller as well as a modern state space control including state observer have been realized.