Design and Control of a Ball and Beam Balancing Mechanism Using MATLAB/Simulink

This report begins with an introduction to a ball and beam balancing mechanism. Basic electronic components and transmission mechanisms are also discussed which is then linked to mathematical calculations. An in-depth dynamic model of ball is presented which includes basic dynamic equations derived from newton’s laws of motions and lagrangian approach. However, lagrangian approach is used throughout to model system on a computer. Matlab/simulink was used to generate system output by employing a pid controller and a lead compensator. Root locus method was used to design a lead compensator. Lead compensator designed was also used with simulink model of the system to achieve desired system output. Output generated from each control strategy successfully satisfied the design criteria i.e. Percentage overshoot to be less than 5% and settling time to be less than 3 seconds.