Design and Implementation of a Ball and Beam Control System Using a PID Controller

Contribution: Prior studies have emphasized the importance of examining nonlinear control systems in engineering courses, where implementing a proportional-integral derivative (PID) controller is a fundamental approach to understanding system stabilization and dynamic response. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a ball and beam system as an open-source educational tool that enables students to engage in real-time PID tuning and system optimization through practical experimentation. Background: PID controllers are fundamental to automatic control courses. While the traditional class provides mathematical foundations, experimental learning through direct interaction with a physical system enables deeper understanding. With its unstable dynamics, the ball and beam system is particularly well-suited to illustrate feedback control principles tangibly and interactively. Intended outcomes: This study seeks to assist students in improving their capacity to optimize PID gains to minimize overshoot and decrease settling time to attain the setpoint. The course’s final laboratory activity was centered around a student competition, which promoted teamwork and reinforced the theoretical and practical concepts of control systems in engineering. Application design: The ball and beam system consists of a servo motor-actuated beam and a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor mounted at the beam’s hinged end for real-time position feedback. Based on the students’ configuration, the Arduino microcontroller processes the sensor data and dynamically adjusts the beam’s tilt to maintain the ball at the desired position. Findings: The competition-based approach fostered a highly motivated learning environment, as students were driven to develop the most effective PID tuning strategy. Learning with hardware enhanced student engagement and provided a multi disciplinary experience.