The Acrobot is an underactuated robot arm that has been studied
as a challenging control problem in Control Theory, AI, Robotics, and Machine
Learning. I designed and built this particular acrobot myself.
Since I built the acrobot without any gearboxes and with high precision
bearing motors, there is very little friction in the system and the free
swinging response is nearly chaotic. With the help of Dr.
Chris Atkeson, I also wired the acrobot, Sun computer, Motorola 68332BCC,
current-controlled amplifier, and simple interface circuit together.
The page documents the development of this project, from
design and development through testing. The idea is to give another
student or researcher a head start on exploring their own interests with
the acrobot, or even with any of the hardware or software that I developed/used.
Enjoy and feel free to email
me if you have any questions or comments!
Stage 1 - Design, Manufacture,
and Setup
Stage 2 - The Pendulum (and
some quick hacks)
Stage 3 - Intelligent Pendulum
Control
Stage 4 - Intelligent Acrobot
Control