Proceedings of the 9th IFAC Symposium Advances in Control

Education
The International Federation of Automatic Control
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, June 19-21, 2012

Control Systems Analysis and Design Labs with Educational Plants

M. Sotnikova, N. Zhabko and T. Lepikhin
Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Control Processes,
Saint-Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
(e-mail: LepikhinTA@gmail.com)
Abstract: This article is devoted to using of the special laboratory plants in control education. The
complex of control system analysis and design labs is presented, where each lab deals with one of the
experimental control plants. The brief description of the plants is given and their main features are
analyzed from the control point of view. The substantial formulations of the labs, which are discussed in
the paper, include the problems of system identification, digital control systems design, signal processing
and real-time implementation. The advantages of using MATLAB environment for the problem solution
are pointed out. Finally, the examples of the labs are presented.
Keywords: educational plants, control design labs
control point of view are outlined. Secondly, the substantial
formulations of the labs problems are given for each of the
areas mentioned above. Thirdly, the advantages of using
MATLAB for the analysis and synthesis of the control
systems are discussed. The last section contains some
examples of labs, which are devoted to control system design
for a magnetic levitation plant and programming movements
for a robotic manipulator.

1. INTRODUCTION
Real plants are invaluable in control education because they
allow students to make sense of essential problems which
appear in the control of real objects. Usually, educational
control objects are relatively simple compared to real
industrial control plants; nevertheless, they reveal all the
typical control challenges such as unaccurate knowledge of
the mathematical model, sensor noise, external disturbances,
input and output constraints, etc.

2. EXPERIMENTAL EDUCATIONAL PLANTS

In the framework of the proposed labs the following
educational experimental plants are used:

Educational plants are very useful for both teaching process

and research (Veremey, 2008). Performing the labs the
students are faced with a whole spectrum of control system
design and implementation problems. The researches have an
opportunity to test any control algorithm or perform the
identification procedure, etc. for real control object.

magnetic levitation plant;

rotary flexible joint system;
ball and beam system;
robotic manipulator FANUC M-20iA.
These plants are intensively used for control education at the
Information Processes Modelling Laboratory at the Faculty of
Applied Mathematics and Control Processes, SaintPetersburg State University.

This article deals with the complex of control systems

analysis and design labs. The main goal of the proposed labs
is an application of the control theory methods to the analysis
and design of control systems for educational plants. This
complex can be used in educational process for teaching
students, who specialize in the area of dynamical systems
control and its applications.
The control system design problem for a particular plant
includes a lot of sub-problems, the most serious of them
being system identification, digital control system analysis
and
synthesis,
signal
processing
and
real-time
implementation. A lot of different lab courses can be
constructed on the basis of the proposed labs depending on
the course specifics the general understanding of control
design problem for real plants, system identification or
others.
The paper is organized in the following way. Firstly, a brief
description of educational plants as control objects is
presented, and their most important characteristics from the
978-3-902823-01-4/12/$20.00 2012 IFAC

Fig. 1. Magnetic levitation plant.

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9th IFAC Symposium Advances in Control Education

Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, June 19-21, 2012

Let us consider these plants in more details. The magnetic

levitation system is shown in Fig. 1. The main components of
system are an electromagnet above, a pedestal below,
where the ball rests initially, and a steel ball. The aim of the
control is to stabilize the ball position in a particular point
between the electromagnet and the pedestal by means of the
controlled voltage which is applied to the electromagnet.

processes, is quite simple and suitable for educational

purposes. The notable feature of this plant is its open-loop
instability, i.e., if the beam angle is fixed, the ball rolls down
until it reaches the end point of the beam.
Each of these plants has the required hardware to transfer the
information from the sensors to the computer and, vice versa,
to bring the control signal from the computer to the plants. In
addition, each plant has necessary software to calculate the
control signal on the basis of the measurements and
additional software support providing the interface with the
MATLAB environment. Thus, the control system design and
analysis can be performed using MATLAB, and, after that,
control algorithms can be easily implemented for plants realtime control. It can be noted that all plants are digital control
systems, so the methods of digital control theory must be
used for its analysis and synthesis.

Magnetic levitation system (MAGLEV, 2007) has a current

sensor and an optical sensor, which measure the current in the
electromagnet and the distance between ball position and the
electromagnet surface respectively. The optical sensor is very
sensitive to changes in temperature and light conditions, and
its measurements are very noisy. It is important to notice that
the magnetic field created by the electromagnet is nonuniform, especially near the magnet surface. Consequently it
is quite difficult to describe it mathematically. Thereby the
corresponding mathematical model of the control process is
essentially nonlinear. One more important feature of the
system is the ball vertical position unstability.

The industrial robotic manipulator FANUC M-20iA (Fig. 3)

is widely used in the educational process in a number of
courses for preparing IT-specialists (Lepikhin, 2009). The
special significance of the proposed courses is determined by
their practical orientation, related to the direct interaction
with real information systems. Dealing with the robotic one
should develop software using the specific programming
language with structures like loops, conditional statements,
labels, special instructions and interaction with external
interfaces of the robotic.

The rotary flexible joint system is an educational plant where

a pendulum can oscillate on a rotating platform. This plant is
shown in Fig. 2 (left). The motion of the pendulum is limited
by two springs which connect it to the rotating platform. The
goal of the control is to deflect the pendulum at the given
angle and to stabilize it in the vicinity of the new direction. In
order to obtain the desirable goal, it is necessary to control
the rotations of the platform. This plant has two sensors. The
first of them measures the angle of the pendulum deflection,
while the second one measures the angle of the platform
rotation. Both sensors are very noisy, causing the main
difficulty in the control of the considered object. Besides, the
structure of the differential equations, which represent the
mathematical model of the control process, is not so evident,
and it is necessary to perform the system model identification
first. The quality of the control processes in this case is
determined, among other things, by the level of the
oscillations in the transient responses.

Fig. 3. Robotic manipulator FANUC M-20iA.

3. LABS PROBLEMS FORMULATION
The basic labs directions are system identification, analysis
and synthesis of the digital control algorithms, digital signal
processing and real-time implementation. For each direction
the substantial formulation of the labs problems is presented
below.

Fig. 2. Rotary flexible joint system (left) and Ball and Beam
system (right).
A ball and beam system is one of the most popular
educational plants. In it a steel ball rolls on the top of a long
beam. The beam angle can be adjusted by applying control
signal to the electrical motor. The goal of the control is to
move the ball to the desired position and to stabilize it in the
vicinity of that point. The ball position on the beam is
measured by the ultrasonic range sensor. The measurements
of this sensor are extremely noisy and can give estimations of
the position with the essential errors. At the same time, the
mathematical model, describing the dynamics of the control

3.1. Plant model identification

The first problem that appears when someone starts to work
with a new plant is to obtain its mathematical model. Most
educational plants have no documentation where their
mathematical models are described. In other cases, when
some initial mathematical model is presented, it is often
necessary to significantly improve it.

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In the framework of the lab, the problem of model

identification (Ljung, 1999) can be divided into the following
steps.

consider the following discrete-time analog that can be

constructed on the base of model (1)

x k +1 = f (k , x k , u k ) ,

1) Getting the structure of the equations which are constitutes

the mathematical model of the plant in the form

x = f (t , x, u, k ) ,

(2)

where x k E n state vector, u k E m control input at the

(1)

where x E n state vector, u E m control input, k E r

vector of parameters, which values must be estimated
during the process of identification. Equations (1) are mainly
formed on the base of priory knowledge about the object
dynamics and the basic physical laws.

sample instant k . In the further discussion model (2) is used

as a base for analysis and synthesis of the digital control.
3.2. Analysis and synthesis of the digital control
The problems of digital control analysis and synthesis are
considered in the proposed labs with the help of Control
System Toolbox of the MATLAB package.

This problem is quite complicated for some devices, for

example, for the magnetic levitation plant. This is due to the
fact that the magnetic field near the magnet is extremely
difficult to describe, thus the corresponding mathematical
model representing ball dynamics nearby the magnet has a
very complex structure.

Let us look at the most important questions of the control

system analysis:
stability analysis. Here the question of stability can be
considered with respect to the nonlinear model (2) or its
linearization in the vicinity of the operating point or
trajectory;
controllability and observability analysis. Here the
conditions of full controllability and observability are
checked and the questions of system stabilizability and the
necessary content of measurements are investigated.
Now let us talk about the problems related to the synthesis of
the digital control systems. The key problem that should be
treated for the experimental devices is synthesis of stabilizing
feedback control. Thus, for the magnetic levitation system,
the feedback control law should provide ball position
stabilization at a given distance from the electromagnet, for
the rotary flexible joint system fix the pendulum with the
given rotation angle and for the ball and beam system
stabilize the ball position at the desired point on the beam.
The other synthesis problem of interest is development of
program control algorithms and realization of the program
movements for the educational plants.

Let us consider that the structure of the equations (1) reflects

the control object dynamics within certain limits. In
particular, the equations (1) can be linear and represent the
object dynamics in the vicinity of equilibrium point.
2) Experiment design and implementation on the plant, and
data gathering for identification. At this stage the following
key questions regarded to experiment design should be
considered:
method of carrying out the experiment in an open-loop
or in a closed-loop. For instance, for magnetic levitation
system the experiment can be performed only in closedloop because of the ball vertical position instability;
data for identification which data should be gathered for
identification, and which signals are considered as input
and output. Besides, an important question is how many
variables should be measured in order to estimate all the
parameters of the model (1);
input signal selection. The standard choice is between the
step, harmonic or random binary signals. It is important to
note that the probabilistic properties of the estimations of
the parameter vector k in (1) are strongly depend on the
input signal selection. So, the problem is how to choose
the input signal in order to remove the biases of the
estimations and to minimize their dispersion.

When the problems of control synthesis are discussed, the

following important issues must be taken into account
closed-loop system stability, control processes quality, input
and output constraints, external disturbances, computational
complexity of the control algorithms from the real-time
implementation point of view.
Now assume that the control synthesis problem is solved.
Then the next step, preceding practical implementation of the
obtained control algorithm, is the mathematical modelling of
the control processes in the closed-loop system. The most
suitable environment for such a task is a subsystem Simulink
of the dynamic simulation from the MATLAB package.

3) Model (1) parameters identification using experimental

data. The identification can be performed, for example, on
the base of the standard methods, which are implemented in
the System Identification Toolbox of the MATLAB package.
4) Verification of the obtained model. The verification is
usually realized by comparison of the identified model output
and the plant output for given input signal. This procedure
gives the information about how obtained model reflects
dynamics of the plant.

3.3. Digital signal processing

The problem of signal processing in the framework of the
proposed labs appears due to the presence of the significant
noise in the measurements of sensors, which are used on the
experimental plants. Its obvious that the measurement noise
influences the quality of the control processes. Consequently,
the main goal is the measurement noise filtering. The
following questions can be considered during the labs:

Assume that the mathematical model of the form (1) is

obtained as a result of the identification procedure. Lets

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Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, June 19-21, 2012

Making simple calculations such as array operating,

finding of eigenvalues, determinants of square matrices,
solutions of the equations and the systems of equations,
Laplace and Fourier transformations, operating with
polynomials, integrating and etc. on the basis of the wide
spectrum of mathematical functions, realized in MATLAB
package.
Executing different steps in mathematical modeling. For
example, it can be parameter or structure identification of
the considered linear and nonlinear systems from
measured input-output data on the basis of System
Identification Toolbox, where the most popular algorithms
for identification are realized, and linearization of the
available nonlinear models in the vicinity of the operating
point or motion.
Analysis and synthesis for continuous or discrete linear
time-invariant models (LTI-objects) of plants with the help
of instruments of Control System Toolbox. This toolbox
provides a lot of standard algorithms for analyzing
stability, controllability, observability, constructing of
different characteristics, such as zeros and poles of the
LTI-object, its frequency response, gain and phase margins
etc. The control laws design can be based on the decisions
of problems of modal control, LQR/LQG optimization,
PID-control. While working with the toolbox the LTIobjects can be described in the different forms in time
domain or frequency domain.
Analysis, signal processing and synthesis for continuous or
discrete models of plants, including alternative techniques
for LTI-objects, with the help of instruments of the other
toolboxes. On the basis of the toolboxes in MATLAB one
can provide the development of the various modern
techniques for considered systems, such as design and
simulating model predictive controllers, design and
simulating fuzzy logic systems. The special attention when
exploring LTI-objects should be paid to design of robust
controllers for plants that can have model uncertainty.
Adaptation and modification of the algorithms, provided in
MATLAB, taking into account the characteristics of the
considered task, and implementation of the new
computational algorithms.
Simulation of the dynamic processes in continuous and
discrete time in the designed control systems. It can be
performed in the special system Simulink in MATLAB
package. Simulink allows investigating the dynamics of
the entire closed-loop systems with the designed
controllers in the real-time operation mode. One can
validate the constructed models of the plants and designed
controllers by verifying the plant behavior and the graphic
and digital representation of its dynamic parameters. To
improve characteristics of the controller and other
elements of the entire closed-loop system one can tune
their parameters using the parametric optimization
approach, which is performed by the subsystem Simulink
Response Optimization.

estimation of the noise spectral characteristics. This

problem can be solved, for example, by constructing a
spectrum of the signal generated by the sensor when the
controlled object is placed at the equilibrium point;
measurement signals filtering. Here the problem of filter
design on the base of the estimated spectral characteristics
of the noise should be treated. The standard MATLAB
tools can be involved for this problem solution.
It can be noted that the designed filter should be tested by
means of mathematical modelling using Simulink before the
practical implementation.
3.4. Real-time implementation
The significance of this question is explained by the fact that
all of the considered experimental plants are digital control
devices operating in real-time. In this connection it is critical
that the computational time required for calculating control
signal should not exceed the sampling interval of the
corresponding digital control system. This fact imposes the
additional constraint on the used control algorithm, which
must be quite simple. If the computational consumptions,
required for control calculations, exceed the sampling
interval, then its necessary either to tune control algorithm
parameters or to optimize the algorithm in order to reduce the
computational time.
In the framework of the labs, each designed control algorithm
can be tested in terms of possibility of its implementation in
real-time. This task can also be done on the base of
MATLAB/Simulink modelling complex with the additional
measurements of computational time, required at each sample
instant for control input calculating.
4. ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS USING MATLAB
All discussed plants can successfully function with the help
of modern program packages such as MATLAB. MATLAB
is regarded as the standard instrument for supporting of
technical calculations and can be used as the base
environment for working with labs with the experimental
plants. MATLAB package provides an extensive range of
industry-standard tools and algorithms for analysis and
design in control and signal processing and can be intensively
exploited in different directions while preparing labs, such as
mathematical modelling of plants;
software support implementation for all methods and
corresponding algorithms for analysis and design of the
elements of control systems for the plants;
computer models construction of all elements of the
designed dynamic systems, including the subsystems for
data acquisition and signal processing.
While working in each direction the students can carry out
numerous experiments, running different scenarios for the
plants, which can be illustrated with graphical visualizing and
digital performance of the processed data.

There can be noted the following aspects of using

MATLAB/Simulink system in students research work
with the experimental plants:

The following problems can be solved in labs by means of

MATLAB tools:

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The variety and simplicity of calculations, which can be

performed in MATLAB/Simulink system, allow to realize
simply the studied notions and mathematical formalized
tasks as well as the whole complex of actions and
calculations that should be made when investigating the
educational control plants, and, thus, the real industrial
control plants.
One of the main features of MATLAB is its orientation on
the effectiveness of array calculations, executing in this
environment. So, there is a great spectrum of appropriate
embodied methods in MATLAB, and the operations with
vectors and matrices are extremely fast and simple. The
essential part of computing in applying the algorithms for
LTI-objects, which form the important class of control
plants models and certainly should be exploited during
executing of the labs, is presented by array calculations.
The mentioned MATLABs feature then provides great
possibilities for students to handle with LTI-objects and
study of many various tasks for such plants, easily and
quickly performing calculations and visualizing the results
in MATLAB.
Realizing the calculations of the same type for varying
data within the framework of some method for the
considered educational plant, students can compare the
results and get the peculiarities of using the studied
approaches in practice. The necessity of applying the
formalized mathematical methods for analyzing, signal
processing and synthesis for the experimental control
plants makes the students understand the advantages and
disadvantages of the analytic approaches and algorithms,
and the ways of getting round the appeared difficulties.

other, so they are very active. Labs classes are very

interesting for both students and lecturers.
Let us consider magnetic levitation system control design lab
as an example. The opening challenge is the identification of
the parameters of linear model (Sotnikova, 2009), which
describes the process dynamics near the operating point
xb 0 = 0.009 . Such a linear model is varied in dependence
of the distance from the electromagnet. The first step of
identification is the gathering of the experimental data. The
data that are used for the identification in this case are shown
in fig. 4. These data include the measurements of the ball
position and the coil current on the time interval with the
duration of 50 sec. Here the random binary sequence was
used as the input signal. The next step is data pre-processing,
which results in zero mean data sequences. The obtained data
is used further in linear model identification.
Ball position and Reference signal

-3

11

x 10

x b (m )

10
9
8
7
150

155

160

165

170

175 180
t (s)
Coil Current

155

160

165

170

185

190

195

200

185

190

195

200

I (A )

1.2
1.1
1
0.9

5. LABS EXAMPLES

0.8
150

Each lab is started with the brief theoretical introduction to

the considered control problem and different well-known
approaches for it solution. The lecturer points out the key
difficulties and discuss with the students the advantages and
disadvantages of the different approaches. After that, the
lecturer presents in more details some particular approach
and has a discussion with the students how they can apply
that method for the specified educational plant. At this stage
students start to formulate control problem mathematically
for the particular plant and try to solve it using the proposed
approach. They try to implement the obtained solution by
performing simulations in the MATLAB/Simulink
environment. Lecturer verifies received results and guides
students if they have some mistakes. If students perform the
first part successfully, they attempt to implement the
proposed approach to the real educational plant. At this step
they are faced with a lot of challenges and realize that the
simulation results differ with the ones they can see for the
plant. It is the most interesting part of the lab when the
students try different ways in order to avoid difficulties and
to get satisfactory results. Usually lab is performed by several
groups of students. At the end of the lab the students from
each group present the work they have done.

175
t (s)

180

Fig. 4. Experimental data for linear model identification.

Parameters estimation of the linear model can be performed
with the help of the prediction error method, which is
implemented, for example, by the function pem in the
System Identification Toolbox of MATLAB package. As a
result of the identification the estimations of the parameters
and the corresponding linear model are obtained.
To test the adequacy of the identified model it was used to
adjust the coefficients of the PID-controller in order to
improve the quality of the control processes. This adjustment
was implemented using the Simulink Response Optimization
block of the MATLAB package. The experimental data,
where the new adjusted controller is used, are presented in
the fig. 5.
From the comparison of figures 4 and 5, illustrating the
results of the lab, it is easy to see that the quality of the
control processes has improved. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the identified model is adequate to the real
processes dynamics and it can be used for digital control
system analysis and synthesis, in addition to the already
adjusted PID-controller.

Lab classes have interactive form of education. Students are

encouraged to have a discussion with the lecturer and each
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created by the operators and the conditions of transition to the

label. Let us consider the example in the Table 2.
In this part of the code not only conditional operators are
used, but also registers as well as some instruction. We
supplement the code with two more important actions by
closing and opening a tool such as "capture". To do this, we
add four lines containing the robotic registers Register
Output. We present below an example which contains some
commands making robotic movement from one position to
another, captures the cargo, moves to the next position and
returns to home-position.

Ball position

-3

11

x 10

x b (m )

10
9
8
7

5
6
t (s)
Coil Current

10

I (A )

1.2
1.1

Table 3. Example of the program for robotic movement

1: R[1]=0
2: PR[2,3]=30
3: PR[3,3]=30
4: LABEL1
5: J P[1: Home] 100% FINE
6: L P[2] 2000 mm/sec FINE OFFSET PR[2]
7: RO[1]=ON
8: RO[2]=OFF
9: L P[3] 2000 mm/sec FINE
10: C P[4]

0.9
0.8

5
t (s)

10

Fig. 5. Experimental data with using of adjusted controller.

The second example has to do with the programming of the
robotic manipulator movements. The problem is to provide
the movement of the robotic through the given points. The
illustrated results of the lab correspond to the movement
between two positions, capturing the small box and returning
to the initial position. The standard program for FANUCrobotic is a sequence of commands. For example let us look
at the following code:

: P[5] 2000 mm/sec CNT100

11: L P[6] 2000 mm/sec FINE OFFSET PR[3]

12: RO[1]=OFF
13: RO[2]=ON
14: L P[7] 2000 mm/sec FINE
15: J P[1: Home] 100% FINE
16: R[1]=R[1]+1
17: IF R[1]<=3 JUMP LABEL1
18: CALL HOME

Table 1. Example of a linear program for robotic

1:
2:
3:
4:
:

5:
6:
7:

J P[1: Home] 100% FINE

L P[2] 2000 mm/sec CNT100
L P[3] 2000 mm/sec FINE
C P[4]
P[5] 2000 mm/sec FINE
L P[6] 2000 mm/sec FINE
L P[7] 2000 mm/sec FINE
J P[1: Home] 100% FINE

6. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the complex of control systems analysis and
design labs for real educational plants is proposed. The main
problems, which should be considered in the framework of
the labs, are presented. Two examples of the labs problems
are given.

In this small program we can see some various structures and

points. The letter P is used to determine a position of the
robotic. The number in brackets is a number of the position.
The word Home equals a name of start position. Then there
is a velocity with which the robotic moves to the position.
And the next parameter is CNT or FINE. It shows the type of
destination position. This program provides the robotic
moves from position 1 to 7 and returns to 1 again.

REFERENCES
Lepikhin T. (2009) Using FANUC industrial robotic in the
learning process // Proc. IV Intern. conf. Modern
information technologies and IT-education, Moscow,
INTUIT.RU, pp.339-345.
Ljung L. (1998). System Identification: Theory for the User.
Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2nd
edition, 1999.
MAGLEV: Magnetic Levitation Plant (2007). User Manual.
Quanser.
Veremey E., Lepikhin T. (2008) Innovative teaching and
research environment for modelling of the information
processes // Proc. III Intern. conf. Modern information
technologies and IT-education, Moscow, MAKS Press,
pp.207-214.
Sotnikova M. (2009) Identification of a linear model of the
magnetic levitation in the MATLAB environment //
Proc. IV conf. Designing engineering and scientific
applications in MATLAB, pp. 507-522.

Table 2. Example of the loop

1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:

R[1]=0
LABEL1
J P[1] 100% FINE
L P[2] 2000mm/sec
R[1]=R[1]+1
IF R[1]>=3 JUMP LABEL1

In order to perform a set of movements by the robotic several

times, there exists the possibility of loops using. A loop is

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