Opu Narcisse, November 22, 2012

Graduate student,
Department of Mathematical Information Technology,
University of Jyvskyl Finland.

Digital Feedback Control

Since the modern age, mankind has undertaken huge technological development projects
which are directed towards making life easy. Some of these technological developments
resulted in large machineries, cutting edge robots and critical systems components. These
inventions needed some accurate control systems which did not required mans
intervention; the control system was invented.

The first control systems were analogue and were later digitalised. In a perfect situation
with no errors Y = X G, but this is not true in real life because of errors and energy
conversion.

Y=XG
Digital Control Output
X System Y

Block diagram of a digital controller

The concept of a digital feedback control was coin which feedbacks informed the controller
about the errors in the out and some measured were taken by the controller to address the
errors. Errors in the output means the targeted output will not either be reached or surpass.
There are generally two types of feedback controls; negative and positive digital feedback
controls.

System (G) Output

+ E Control (C) X Y

Feedback Product: Y = G X = CGE.

Block diagram of a feedback digital controller

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
 In a positive digital feedback control system the target output is not reached; measures are
taken to increase the output. While in a negative digital feedback control the target output
is surpass; some measures are taken to reduce the output. A negative digital feedback
controller is more stable than a positive digital feedback controller. It makes the controller
immune to random variations in component values and inputs. A perfect digital control is
one with no errors in the loop; when the systems output is equal to the targeted output.

X + e G Y
C G Y
Is equal to 1+GC
z - C

CY

A block diagram for a feedback loop along with an algebraic proof

An example of a digital feedback control

An example which demonstrates the use of a digital feedback control can be seen in a cruise
control of a car. The input is the cars gas pedal controlled by the driver, the system is the
cars engine and the output is the velocity of the car. When a cruise control system is
engaged the gas pedal is automatically adjusted to maintain a predefined velocity (target
speed) which is passed onto the feedback digital controller. The actual speed of the car is
feedback into the feedback digital controller which compares it with the target speed. The
feedback digital controller will either increase or decrease the speed depending weather the
car is driving or slower than expected. This is illustrated in the block diagram of the
feedback digital controller above. Digital feedback controls are used in almost critical

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
systems such as in marine systems, aerospace, industrial plants, automobile, robotics, just to
names these few.

Transfer Functions

Transfer functions is another way to represent system dynamics, through the s

representation gotten from the Laplace transforms. It represents the relation between the
input and output of a linear time invariant system with zero-point equilibrium and zero initial
conditions.

G(s) = X(s) X(s) G(S) Y(s)

F(s)

Block diagram of transfer functions

Laplace Transformation is method for solving differential equations. It converts differential

equations in time t into algebraic equations in complex variable s if f is a function of time,
with value f(t) at time t.

Forward Laplace transformation

PID Control

There are three types of controls and they can use differently in the discrete and continuous
time domain. These controls include the integral, proportional and derivative controls. PID
controls uses a combination these control in parallel in the continuous time domain.

Each control interacts with a specific characteristics of the error signal; Integral control to
the integral of the error signal, derivation control to the derivative of the error signal and
proportional control to the proportion of the error signal (Starr, 2006).

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
 Block diagram of the PID control

Kp

e(t) KD s + u(t)

Ki
s

( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

The continuous time domain proportional control is identified by:

( ) ( ) ( )

Or

( ) Where T = sampling time

Control System Design

Designing control system is very challenging as there are usually very specific requirements
which must be respected to the very detail. In most cases the amplitude of the signal will
rise above the target level (overshoot) before settling at the targeted amplitude. The speed
at which the signal reaches the targeted amplitude will determine the performance of the
controller. The steady state error is the level of error tolerance the controller and it depends
on the signal input (sine/cosine, ramp, parabola or step). The shorter the settling time, the
better performance the controller will have (Schmidt et al, 2011).

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
Controller Stability

There are generally two levels of systems order; the first and second order systems. The
main difference in these systems is the number of poles in their complex plains. While the
first order system has a pole the second order system has more poles. A differential
equation is commonly used to describe first order systems as below.

v(t)
L
()
() ()

f(t)

First order system diagram and differential equation

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
 ( )
( )
( )

Differential equation for second order systems

The stability in the digital feedback controls depends on the poles positions in the Laplace
complex plain. With the first order system, the system is stable when the pole is on the
negative section of and on the real axis of the Laplace plane. While a second order system is
considered stable when the poles are within the negative section of the real (Re) axis
(Schmidt et al, 2011).

BIBO stability is related to the input and output bounds and its archived when the all the
poles Laplace plain y(s) are within the unity circle.

|s!| < 1.

It is also attain when the disturbance is bounded in the unity circle over time.

Abs(y(t)) < M for all t > 0

Im

Stable

X Instable

X X
Re

Diagram for the stability digital feedback control

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
Shannon theorem and Sampling time (T)

Digital feedback controls use analogue input signal, which is converted into a digital signal
for processing. Later the output is converted back to an analogue signal before passing it
over to the system. Digital controls uses a sampling time during these conversion processes;
the sampling time (T) is based on the Shannon theory (Eugene et al, 2007).

e output to system
S/H A/D Control logic D/A

Digital feedback control block diagram with converters

The sampling is the time between each reads on the signal which is to be converted; in most
these conversion take less than 1 millisecond. If the sampling time is too wide some
important parts of the signal might be left out and if too narrow the digital control might be
over worked. An optimum sampling time need to define; the Shannon theory helps in
optimising the sampling time.

Claude Shannon in his theory, states that the sampling time frequency should double the
highest frequency of the signal to be sampled. By following the Shannon theory all the
frequencies of the sampled signal will be read and converted.

There is also the process of sampling and holding in which the analogue sampled signal are
held in a queue for convention into a digital signal.

( ) ( ) ( )

( ) ( )

A/D Analogue to Digital converter

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
 ( ) ( )
D/A
Digital to analogue converter

The sampling time may lead to the follow;

A Critical sampling is when the Nyquist rate equals the double of the Nyquist frequency. An
Under sampling may occur when Nyquist rate is less than the double of the Nyquist
frequency. An Oversampling happens when Nyquist rate is far greater than the double of
the Nyquist frequency (Hass, 2010).

The Relationship between the Z and S transformation.

Discretising by means of a differential equation:

Further discretization can be archived from the relation between the S and Z
transformations.

( ) ( )

( )

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ( )) ( ) ( )

Conclusively

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
 Discrete linear approximation of the Z and S transformation.

Another method

( )

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto
Reference:

Schmidt et al (June 2011), Cloud CubeSat Thermoelectric Cooler Controller System, Olin-
NASA partnership, available: http://nasa.olin.edu/projects/2010/tec/work_introCT.htm , [Nov.
12, 2012]
J. Hass (May 2010), Indiana University - Centre for electronic and computer music digital
audio, available:
http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/etext/digital_audio/chapter5_nyquist.shtml , [Nov. 20,
2012]
T. Haslwanter (Sept. 1994), introduction to feedback control systems, ETH Zurich ,
available : http://www.sensory-systems.ethz.ch/PDFs/Control_Systems.pdf , [Nov. 20, 2012]
Eugene et al (Oct. 2007), Mathematical Theory of Claude Shannon University of
Texas, available: http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~adnan/syn-07/Shannon1.pdf [Nov. 20,
2012]
P. Starr (Nov. 2006), Introduction to applied digital control 2nd edition, University
of New Mexico, available:
http://www.me.unm.edu/~starr/teaching/me581/textbook.pdf [Nov. 20, 2012]

This paper is prepared during the course Real Time Systems with applications to Robotics lectured by Dr Mininno Ernesto