Chapter 1

Basic Concepts and Terminology

Denis Papin’s water float regulator Wall’s fly-ball governor

 C.B. Pham 1-1
 1. Basic concepts

System: an interconnection of elements and devices for a

desired purpose.
Control system: a group of components that maintains a
desired result by manipulating the value of another variable
in the system.

Inlet

Outlet
 C.B. Pham 1-2
 Block diagram & Transfer function

Block diagram
• A block representing each component in a control
system connected by lines that represent the signal
paths.
• Each block receives an input signal from some block
of the system and produces an output signal for
another block of the system.

 C.B. Pham 1-3

 Block diagram & Transfer function

 C.B. Pham 1-4

 Block diagram & Transfer function

Transfer function (TF): a mathematical relationship between

the input and output of a control system component.
Specifically, the transfer function is defined as

y(t)
TF 
x(t)

 C.B. Pham 1-5

 Block diagram & Transfer function

 C.B. Pham 1-6

 Open-loop vs. closed-loop

Open-loop control systems: utilize a controller or control

actuator to obtain the desired response.

 C.B. Pham 1-7

 Open-loop vs. closed-loop

- Complete the block diagram of the system

 C.B. Pham 1-8

 Open-loop vs. closed-loop

Closed-loop control systems: utilize feedback to compare

the actual output to the desired output response..

 C.B. Pham 1-9

 C.B. Pham 1-10
 Case study: A positional control system

Study the response of the table from 0.4 m (initial position)

to 0.64 m (desired position) with the sampling time of 0.1
second.

 C.B. Pham 1-11

 Case study: A positional control system

G1 = 2 G1 = 2.5
T (s) Vi (V) Vf (V) Ve (V) P (mm) Pos (mm) T (s) Vi (V) Vf (V) Ve (V) P (mm) Pos (mm)
2.5 2.5 0 0 400 2.5 2.5 0 0 400
0.0 4 2.5 1.5 0 400 0.0 4 2.5 1.5 0 400
0.1 4 2.5 1.5 2.250 402.250 0.1 4 2.5 1.5 2.813 402.813
0.2 4 2.514 1.486 2.229 404.479 0.2 4 2.518 1.482 2.779 405.592
0.3 4 2.528 1.472 2.208 406.687 0.3 4 2.535 1.465 2.747 408.339
0.4 4 2.542 1.458 2.187 408.874 0.4 4 2.552 1.448 2.715 411.054
0.5 4 2.555 1.445 2.167 411.041 0.5 4 2.569 1.431 2.683 413.737
: : : : : : : : : : : :
60.0 4 3.995 0.005 0.008 639.157 48.0 4 3.995 0.005 0.01 639.163
 C.B. Pham 1-12
 Open-loop vs. closed-loop
Error Control Manipulated
Set signal signal variable Controlled
point variable
Controller Actuator Process
+ _

Measured
variable
Sensor

• Measurement: measure the value of the controlled

variable.
• Decision: compute the error and use the error to form a
control action
• Manipulation: use the control action to manipulate some
variable in the process in a way that will tend to reduce
the error.
 C.B. Pham 1-13
 Open-loop vs. closed-loop

Major advantages of open-loop control systems:

+ Simple construction and ease of maintenance.
+ Less expensive than a corresponding closed-loop
system.
+ There is no stability problem.
+ Convenient when output is hard to measure or
measuring the output precisely is economically not
feasible.
Major disadvantages of open-loop control systems:
− Disturbances and changes in calibration cause errors,
and the output may be different from what is desired.
− To maintain the required quality in the output,
recalibration is necessary from time to time.
 C.B. Pham 1-14
 Open-loop vs. closed-loop

- List 3 ideas from the figure

 C.B. Pham 1-15

 Nonlinearities

• Most control system analysis and design is done with the

assumption that all components in the system are linear.
• When the I/O graph is a single, perfectly straight line, the
component is said to be linear.
• The ability to preserve the shape of the input is an
important characteristic of a linear component.

 C.B. Pham 1-16

 Nonlinearities

Actually, there are several forms of nonlinearity that occur

in control system components: nonlinearity, hysteresis,
dead band, and saturation.

Nonlinear element with a sinusoidal input waveform and

the resulting output waveform.
 C.B. Pham 1-17
 Dead band nonlinearity

• Dead band is the range of values through which an input

can be changed without producing an observable
change in the output
• Backlash in gears is one example of dead band, and the
term backlash is sometimes used in place of dead band.

 C.B. Pham 1-18

 Nonlinear element with hysteresis

• Hysteresis occurs when the I/O graph follows different

curved paths when the input increases and decreases.
• Hysteresis is expressed as the maximum difference
between the outputs for any given input value as the
input traverses one complete cycle.

 C.B. Pham 1-19

 Saturation nonlinearity

• Saturation refers to the limitations on the range of values

for the output of a component.
• All real components reach a saturation limit when the
input is increased (or decreased) beyond its limiting
value.

 C.B. Pham 1-20

 Damping and Stability

The gain of the controller determines a very important

characteristic of a control system's response: the type of
damping or instability that the system displays in response
to a disturbance.
(5) Unstable - increasing amplitude response?

(4) (4) Unstable - constant amplitude response

(3) Underdamped response

(3) (2) Critically damped response

(2)
(1) Overdamped response
(1)

 C.B. Pham 1-21

 Objectives of a control system

When there is a payload changed (noise), the control

system should:
Step change in load
Load Time

Controlled Settling time

variable
Residual error

Time
Maximum
error
(1) Minimize the residual error
(2) Minimize the settling time
 C.B. Pham (3) Minimize the maximum error 1-22
 Block diagram simplification

Open-loop system:

Closed-loop system:

 C.B. Pham 1-23

 2. Types of control

 Feedback
• Not used  open-loop
• Used  closed-loop
 Type of signal
• Continuous  analog
• Discrete  digital
 Industry
• Processing  process control
• Manufacturing  motion control
 Location of the controllers
• Central control room  centralized control
• Near sensors and actuators  distributed control
 C.B. Pham 1-24
 Analog vs. Digital

 C.B. Pham 1-25

 Analog vs. Digital

- An analog signal varies in a

continuous manner and may
take on any value between its
limits.
- A digital signal varies in a
discrete manner and may take
only certain discrete values
between its limits.

 C.B. Pham 1-26

 Process control

Process control: a control system that oversees some

industrial process so that a uniform, correct output is
maintained by monitoring and adjusting the control
parameters (such as temperature or flow rate) to ensure
that the output product remains as it should.

 C.B. Pham 1-27

 Process control

Example: a paint factory in which two colors, blue and

yellow, are mixed to produce green.

 C.B. Pham 1-28

 Process control

Manual control

Automatic flow control

 C.B. Pham Automatic color control 1-29

 Feed-forward control vs. Feed-back control

Example: A continuous, stirred-tank blending systems. The

control objective is to blend the two inlet streams to
produce an outlet stream that has the desired composition.

 C.B. Pham 1-30

 Feed-forward control vs. Feed-back control

• Method 1: Measure x and adjust w2

Feed-back control

 C.B. Pham 1-31

 Feed-forward control vs. Feed-back control

• Method 2: Measure x1 and adjust w2

Feed-forward control

 C.B. Pham 1-32

 Sequentially controlled systems

A sequentially controlled system controls a process that is

defined as a series of tasks to be performed one after the
other.

Each operation in the

sequence is performed
either for a certain
amount of time.

Time-driven operation

 C.B. Pham 1-33

 Sequentially controlled systems
Each operation in the sequence is performed until the task
is finished.

Event-driven operation

 C.B. Pham Sequencer used for liquid mixing 1-34

 Motion control

Motion control: a broad term

used to describe an open-
loop or closed-loop
electromechanical system
wherein things are moving.

 C.B. Pham A servomechanism: a remote antenna positioning system 1-35

 NC machine

Numerical control (NC)

is the type of digital
control used on machine
tools such as lathes and
milling machines.

 C.B. Pham 1-36

 Robot

Pick-and-place robot

 C.B. Pham 1-37

 Robot

Industrial robot

 C.B. Pham 1-38

 Multiprocess control
Individual local controllers

Direct computer control system

Distributed control system

 C.B. Pham 1-39