Application of tree search to the swinging control of a pendulum

A tree search technique for dynamic control problems is proposed. The method is proven to be effective by successfully solving the swinging control problem for a pendulum carried by a motor-driven cart. It is extremely difficult to determine a swinging control rule analytically because the problem is nonlinear and the system has two degrees of freedom. To apply the proposed tree search procedure to the nonlinear control problem, some numerical calculations are performed. The result shows that the technique is suitable for dynamic control problems, and in particular, for the complicated nonlinear dynamic control problem