Rotary Inverted Pendulum Swing-Up and Self-Balancing with a Single Actuator (Furuta Pendulum)

Built a Furuta pendulum simulation that starts near the hanging position, swings up, catches upright, and then keeps balancing using only one actuator on the rotary arm.

What’s happening in the video:

The pendulum starts near the downward position
A swing-up controller pumps energy into the system through the base arm
Once it gets close to upright, the controller switches to balance mode
After stabilizing, it slowly brings the arm angle back near zero while keeping the pendulum upright
Method used:
This is an underactuated control setup, so there is no motor directly on the pendulum itself. The whole thing is controlled with just one motor torque on the base arm.

Stage 1: swing-up
Stage 2: upright catch and stabilization
Stage 3: slow recentering of the arm while maintaining balance
I kept the approach practical and simulation-focused rather than math-heavy. The main idea is using the motion of the base arm to move the pendulum into the upright position, then switching to a stabilizing controller once it’s close enough.

Everything in this clip is from a single-input Furuta pendulum model, not a two-actuator trick.

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Видео Rotary Inverted Pendulum Swing-Up and Self-Balancing with a Single Actuator (Furuta Pendulum) канала Jayprakash Bhele