This study performs erection of a pendulum hanging at a free end of an arm by rotating the arm to the upright position. A mathematical model of a rotary inverted pendulum system (RIPS) is derived. A brain emotional learning based intelligent controller (BELBIC) is designed and used as a controller for swinging up and balancing the pendulum of the RIPS. In simulations performed in the study, a pendulum is initially inclined at $45^{circ}$ with respect to the upright position. A simulation is also performed for evaluating the adaptiveness of the designed BELBIC in the case of system variation. In addition, a simulation is performed for evaluating the robustness of the designed BELBIC against a disturbance in the control input.