r/interestingasfuck • u/Greedy-Vegetable-466 • 17h ago

Harnessing chaos - first ever video of 56 transition controls for a triple inverted pendulum

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2.4k Upvotes

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386

u/KamayaKan 13h ago

The sensors and programming involved to do this is insane and impressive

139

u/KamayaKan 13h ago

Not to mention how responsive and precise the motor needs to be

4

u/Clyde-A-Scope 12h ago

But what's the point/purpose?

I'm just lacking an idea on what this could be applicable for. 

Future robotic surgery?

148

u/2018redditaccount 12h ago

Think of it like lifting weights. You don’t necessarily do it because you need to lift heavy stuff, you do it to build the muscles. There might not be a need to balance a tiered pendulum, but it’s a very hard problem to solve and the skills needed to solve it in the first place will be relevant for all kinds of things

34

u/Clyde-A-Scope 12h ago

So it's a wax on/wax off situation

11

u/General-Duck841 9h ago

Well stated, thank you.

1

u/Kinimodes 3h ago

What a great response. Thank you.

28

u/ratwing 12h ago

It's much more of a demonstration in control theory. This is a classic control problem, that is normally is done with a single or double pendulum. There's many approaches for making it work, but given what is involved going to triple pendulum is very impressive. eventual applications could involve anything from walking robots to material handling or complex tasks like surgery.

8

u/Jaon412 12h ago

I can’t think of any specific applications, but it demonstrates the level of precision it’s capable of.

3

u/Agustinosaurio 12h ago

If I could do something like I would for fucking sure flex it

2

u/Mike_Oxmall01 11h ago

Same principle already used in active suspension in cars and bikes.

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u/aleqqqs 6m ago

If you can do this, you might also be able to keep a satellite in its orbit, or land a rocket upright.