BALLBEAM demonsrates Proportional-Derivative (PD) control as applied to a ball and beam simulation experiment. Execute by calling with no arguments.



P and PD controllers are implemented which manipulates the beam angle in response to the position of the ball on the beam. The setpoint is indicated by the red marker and adjusted using the slider at the bottom of the figure. The control gain, Kc, and the Derivative Time constant, Td, are adjusted by a sliders located in the right hand control panel.



Simulation data is stored in ballbeam.mat for subsequent analysis and parameter estimation.



This demo was originally developed with Matlab 5.3 and Matlab 6.0. Some of the user interface code was shamelessly ripped out of the standard Matlab demos. The demo is now updated for Matlab 2010b with additional documentation and suggested exercises for classroom use.