Overview

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Chapter 1
Overview
What is control engineering?
Education control system
Earthquake control system
Why study feedback control systems?
Major topics and outlines

Overview

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What is control engineering?

We have selected examples of basic control systems widely seen in daily applications.1
toast popping up at just the right time
furnaces turning off & on just the right temperatures
cruise controls keeping your cars at a desired speed up and down hills in rain, snow,
and sleet.
elevator doors opening and closing and the elevator stopping at the right floor
toilets flushing and the tanks filling to the right level

R. DeCarlo, What is control engineering?, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, October 2002, p. 112.

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Education control system

Education is a sampled-data and adaptive feedback system.2

Registrar

Knowledge

Professor

Students

Grades

1 day
Questions
7 days
Homeworks
4 weeks
Exams
5-6 weeks
Comments

H. H. Skilling, Do You Teach? Views on College Teaching. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969, pp. 51-57.

Parents

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signal perspective
Reference signal represents knowledge in the form of book or syllabus which
defines the content of the course.
The output signal is the grade evaluation of the academic performance. The
output is quantized as A, B, C, D, and F, or perhaps 0 100%. At the end of the
semester, the grade results are transmitted to the registrar.
system perspective
The reference signal is fed to the professor teaching the class and directly to the
students in the class.
The feedback paths from the class to the professor appear as questions in the class,
assigned homeworks, examinations, and comments.
These serve as the sensors telling the behavior and academic performance of
students.
The circle with a + sign denotes a summing device which compares the
reference signal with the feedback signals.

Overview

The feedback is discrete in time. The professor can get questions in the class in
every time there is a class, but written homework may come only once a week, and
regular examinations are given in the intervals of several weeks.

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Earthquake control system

u
xm, xm
xa3

xa2

xa1

xg

This is a prototype structure of an actively controlled, three-story, single-bay, model

building 3
3

B. F. Spencer Jr., S. J. Dyke, and H. S. Deoskar, Benchmark Problems in Structural Control: Part I Active Mass Driver System, Earthquake Engineering and
Structural Dynamics, 27(11), 1998, pp. 1127 1139.

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Signals and systems

Actuator: An active mass driver (AMD) was placed on the third floor of the structure.
The AMD consists of a single hydraulic actuator with steel masses attached to the
ends of the piston rod.
Sensors: Acceleration measurements can readily be acquired.
Accelerometers were positioned on the ground, on each floor of the structure, and on
the AMD.
The position of the actuator was obtained using an LVDT (linear variable differential
transformer), rigidly mounted between the end of the piston rod and the third floor.
Objectives:
to evaluate the relative effectiveness and implementability of control algorithms
to provide a testbed for evaluation of control design issues such as model order
reduction, spill-over, control-structure interaction, limited control authority, sensor
noise, available measurements, computational delay.

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Feedback control system

system: describing process, plant, input-output relationship, and cause-effect
relationship.
control: being an essential part of engineering, that is, to understand and control the
materials and forces of nature for the benefit of human kind.
feedback: utilizing some measurements of actual outputs to compare with desired
response. the comparison is accomplished by means of Sum
Reference

Sum

Controller

Sensor

Disturbance

Plant

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Feedback control system (cont.)

Feedback control system is an interconnection of components forming a system
configuration that will provide a desired system response. also referred to as system
with automatic control or closed-loop control.
Process of control system design
1. set up desired physical requirements and lay out a plan for a physical system
2. determine functional block diagram and schematic block diagram
3. determine mathematical model and reduce block digram
4. analyze the system behavior and design controllers/compensators
Functional block diagram describes the system including
system components in terms of function and hardware
interconnection of system components

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example: an antenna azimuth position control system4

The objective of control system is to position a radio telescope antenna. Thus, it is
desired to have azimuth angle output follow the reference input angle
The antenna azimuth position control system consists of the following components
potentiometers: input & output
differential amplifier
motor & load (antenna)
Transducer

Controller

vr

e
Amplifiers

Potentiometer

Sensor

vy
Potentiometer

Nise, Control Systems Engineering, 2000, pp. 18-19.

Plant

o
Motor & Load

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History of feedback control systems

1765 Polzunovs water-level float regulator.
1769 James Watts steam engine and governor developed. Speed control.
1868 Maxwells stability analysis of flyball governor.
1927 Bodes analysis of feedback amplifier.
1932 Nyquists stability analysis.
1960 Modern control. digital, nonlinear, optimal, adaptive
1970 Multivariable control. computer, DSP
1980 Robust control. uncertainty, parameter variation
1990 Hybrid control. sampled-data, human-interface, complex networks
2000 Embedded control. nanotechnology, biomedical, bioengineering

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Why study feedback control systems?

applications arise in many areas, e.g.
circuit analysis, simulation, design
communications, internet congestion
estimation and control design in power systems
aeronautics, navigation, guidance
mechanical systems: automobile,
chemical process
building control under earthquake
economics, finance
social science, population
education
usefulness depends on availability of computing power (for analysis, design,
implementation . . . )
well see many more applications in future

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Impacts of feedback
The idea of feedback transcends technology.5
feedback loops regulate the metabolism of body and the operation of global
economy.
feedback impacts social interaction and human behavior.
the impact is evident from phrases, proverbs, and aphorisms that embody feedback
principles. there are common phrases related to feedback.
do unto others as your would have them do unto you
you shall reap what you sow
you learn from mistakes
for one good deed leads to another good deed, and one transgression leads to
another transgression

In IEEE Control Systems Magazine, August 2003, pp. 104.

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Major topics & outline

1. Overview to feedback control systems
Control engineering
Examples of feedback control systems
2. Elements of feedback control systems
Signals and systems
Laplace transform and its properties
Linear time-invariant systems
Impulse and step responses
3. Models of systems
Dynamic models
Linearized models of nonlinear physical systems
Block diagram models
Signal-flow graph models

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4. Analysis of linear systems

Time-domain performance and specifications
Routh-Hurwitz stability criterion
Benefits of feedback control systems
5. Basic control actions: PID
Proportional control
Proportional plus Integral control
Proportional Integral and Derivative control
Techniques for tuning PID controllers
6. Root-locus analysis & synthesis
Construction of root loci
Complimentary root locus
Design of lead, lag, lead-lag compensators
7. Frequency response analysis
Bode diagram

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Overview

Stability margins
Nyquist stability analysis
8. Frequency response compensator design
Closed-loop frequency response
Nichols chart
Frequency response specifications
Design of lead, lag, lead-lag compensators

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