Ball & Plate

System
The Ball and Plate Control System is controlled by (National Instruments NI) LabVIEW using a NI interface card and demonstrates a classic control problem of balancing a sphere on a flat surface and maintaining its position. It can then be programmed to make the ball describe a circular or any other shaped path around the plate. The unique electromagnetic table actuation enables the study of this unstable system in real-time using sophisticated controllers in NI LabVIEW. The progressive nature of the student exercises enables the study of the problem from first principles to more advanced control concepts. The product provides a useful insight into control engineering at all levels of undergraduate study and enables advanced users to model and control the Ball and Plate using their own strategy.

The equipment set incorporates student experiments which can be carried out in a laboratory safely using safety extra-low voltage. Experiment instructions are contained in a manual in either printed or digital form.

Target Group

A LabVIEWTM license is required for this experiment and is not included in the scope of delivery. The equipment can require additional software modules.

Topics

• Non-linear model simplification
• Non-linear model testing
• Model linearization
• Plant control
• PID controllers
• Plate orientationcontrol
• PID controlofplateorientation
• Real-time PID control
• 1-D PIDcontrolofballposition
• 2-D PIDcontrolofballposition
• Real-time trajectory trackingwith ball