ELEC207 Coursework (v6: 1 February 2022)
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ELEC207 Coursework: Design of a Stable Martian Segway (“Experiment 81”)
Prof Simon Maskell 1 February 2022
Module ELEC207
Coursework name Experiment 81
Component Weight 25% = 3.75 Credits
Semester 2
HE Level 5
Lab location Third floor EEE building
Work Individually
Timetabled time Check Canvas announcements for lab module
Suggested Private Study time 16h
Assessment method Individual report
Submission Format On line submission - Canvas
Late Submission Standard University Penalties
Resit Opportunity By arrangement
Marking Policy Numerical mark
Anonymous marking Yes
Feedback Canvas
Subject of relevance Control Engineering
AHEP Learning Outcomes LO1
This coursework component1 of ELEC207 relates to Part B, “Control”, and focuses on the
content up to and including lecture 10 of Part B of the module. The mark you will receive for
the coursework constitutes 25% of your mark for ELEC207 and is intended to enable you to
demonstrate your understanding of how to:
• use the position of poles to demonstrate whether systems are stable;
• use your knowledge of control to define a controller that ensures that a system is
stable;
• use root locus to ensure the closed-loop time-response has specific properties;
• use Simulink to validate that the closed-loop time-response is as expected;
• explain your work in a clear and concise fashion.
You are expected to make use of the lecture notes and explicit references to numbered
lectures are therefore included in this document. The demonstrators associated with the lab
are available to support you in undertaking this coursework. Queries can also be submitted
via the discussion board for ELEC207 on Canvas.
The mark you will receive (out of a total of 40 marks) will quantify the following aspects of
your write-up:
• Demonstration of your understanding of ELEC207 (75% and out of 30 marks);
• Clarity of exposition (25% and out of 10 marks).
The marking descriptors are provided in the appendix.

1 Assessment of ELEC207 has previously included Experiment 81, which may result in some legacy references
to experiment 81 in documentation that has not yet been updated to reflect the change. This coursework
takes the place of experiment 81.
ELEC207 Coursework (v6: 1 February 2022)
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Any emboldened text in a box herein implies that a specific response should be included in
your write-up with the number in brackets indicating the number of marks associated with
that component of the write-up. Failure to include such a response is liable to result in you
obtaining fewer marks than would have been the case otherwise.
The assessment of the assignment is intended to be sufficiently straightforward that a
diligent student should be able to achieve a pass mark of 40% but sufficiently challenging
that achieving a first (ie 70% or above) requires deep understanding of the subject matter.
To aid you in understanding how challenging each mark is to obtain, marks are annotated
with E for Easy, M for Moderate and H for Hard: 8 of the marks are deemed to be easy; 14
are deemed moderate; 8 are deemed hard.
You should submit your coursework on or before the deadline announced by the lab
coordinator (check Canvas announcements).
Plagiarism and collusion or fabrication of data is always treated seriously and action
appropriate to the circumstances is always taken. The procedure followed by the University
in all cases where plagiarism, collusion or fabrication is suspected is detailed in the
University’s Policy for Dealing with Plagiarism, Collusion and Fabrication of Data, Code of
Practice on Assessment, Category C, available on:
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/tqsd/code-of-practice-onassessment/appendix_L_cop_assess.pdf
ELEC207 Coursework (v6: 1 February 2022)
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1. Mathematical Modelling
A Segway (as shown in figure 1) is a physical system that can be modelled as an inverted
pendulum.
Figure 1: A Segway
More specifically, we will assume that the pendulum can be approximated as a point mass,
of mass m, at a distance, l, and at a (small) angle, θ(t), defined clockwise from vertical.
Gravity is assumed to act downwards and exert an acceleration of g. A motor provides a
torque, T(t). The actuator that converts the Torque control signal to the physical Torque can
be assumed to have a gain of unity. The angular acceleration of the pendulum can then be
approximated as being defined by: