1. What is an Inverted Pendulum?
Remember when you were a child and you tried to balance a broom-stick or baseball bat on your index finger or the palm of your hand? You had to constantly adjust the position of your hand to keep the object upright. An Inverted Pendulum does basically the same thing. However, it is limited in that it only moves in one dimension, while your hand could move up, down, sideways, etc. Check out the video provided to see exactly how the Inverted Pendulum works.

2. What is it for?
Just like the broom-stick, an Inverted Pendulum is an inherently unstable system. Force must be properly applied to keep the system intact. To achieve this, proper control theory is required. The Inverted Pendulum is essential in the evaluating and comparing of various control theories.