EXPERIMENT 9

D.C. POSITION CONTROL

1. OBJECT

To study the performance characteristics of a d.c. motor angular position control system.

2. EQUIPMENT DESCRIPTION

A major portion of any first course on automatic control system invariably revolves around the study of d.c. position
control systems. Experimental work in this area has however been confined to analogue simulated systems. e.g. through
our 'Linear System Simulator' or similar other units. The biggest advantage of this approach is the unlimited flexibility
and near perfect operation of the simulated systems leading to a close correlation between theoretical and
experimental results, however, the student is denied the feel of a physical electromechanical system. The present unit
has been designed with this objective in mind. Despite the constraints like friction, dead zone, nonlinearities due to
amplifier saturation and motor current limiting, and low speed of response associated with any mechanical system. the
student has been provided with enough opportunity for experimentation on a working system. The partial diagram in
Fig. I shows the various built-in subsystems which are now described.

2.1 Signal Sources

• Angle command (continuous): obtained through a potentiometer with a calibrated disk attached.

• Angle command (step): available through a toggle switch. Automatic synchronisation with waveform capture circuit is
provided.

2.2 Motor Unit

The position control is achieved through a good quality permanent magnet d.c. gear motor. The specifications of the
motor are :

• Operating voltage: 24Vdc

• No load current : 0.16A
• Full load current : 2.8A
• Rated speed : 40 rpm
 • Torque (basic): 1.48 Kg-cm

However in DCP-01 we are using this motor at onl y l 2Vdc.

Angular position of the motor shaft is sensed by a special 360° rotation potentiometer attached to it. A calibrated disk
mounted on the potentiometer indicates its angular position in degrees. In addition to this, a small tachogenerator
attached to the motor shaft produces a voltage proportional to its speed which is used for feedback.

All the above components, viz. the motor. potentiometer, tachogenerator etc. are fitted inside the 'motor unit'.
Transparent panels provide a good view of the interior. The motor unit is connected to the rest of the system through a
9-pin D-type connector and cables.

2.3 Main Unit

The main unit houses the command circuit, the error detector, the gain controls of the forward path and
tachogenerator channels, the power stage and the waveform capture/display Unit. Different experiments are
performed by appropriate settings of the controls as explained later. Description of the above blocks is given next.

(a) Command: Two operating modes have been provided in the system. When a continuous command is given by the
rotation of a potentiometer through a certain angle, the closed loop system responds by an identical rotation of the
motor shaft. Alternatively, a step command equivalent to about 150 degrees may be given by a switch. This is used for
quantitative studies of the step response.

(b) Error detector: This is a 4-input 1-output block. Two of the inputs are meant for command signals and the remaining
two inputs, having 180° phase shift, are used for position and velocity feedback signals.

(c) Gain blocks: The forward path gain is adjustable from 0 to 10 and the tachogenerator channel gain may be varied
from 0 to 1. The gains may be read from the markings on the panel.

(d) Driver: The driver is a unity gain complementary symmetry power amplifier suitable for running the motor upto full
power in either direction. A current limiting circuit ensures safety of the power transistors during motor starting and
direction reversal.

(e) Waveform Capture/Display unit: The time response of a mechanical system like the present one is usually too slow
for a CRO display, except on a storage oscilloscope. Alternatively an X-Y recorder could be used to get a hard copy which
may subsequently be studied quantitatively. Both these options are quite expensive for a usual undergraduate
laboratory. The waveform capture/display unit is a microprocessor based card which can 'capture' the motor response
and then 'display' the same on any ordinary X-Y oscilloscope for a detailed study. The stored waveform is erased
whenever another waveform is captured, or the unit is reset.

2.4 Power Supply

The set-up has a number of IC regulated supplies which are permanently connected to all the circuits. No external d.c.
supply should be connected to the unit.

Capabilities of this unit include an evaluation of the performance of the position control system for different values of
forward gains. Also the effect of tachogenerator feedback on system stability forms an important study. Effect of non-
linearity, so common in all practical systems, may be readily observed by the student. In all the cases the response is
stored and can then be displayed on an ordinary measuring oscilloscope.

3. BACKGROUND SUMMARY

Second order systems are studies in great detail in any course on linear control system. The reason for this is that a large
number of higher order practical control systems may be approximated as a second order system while neglecting less
dominant modes, nonlinearities like dead zone, saturation, hysteresis etc.. assuming these to have little effect on the
performance. Also second order systems lend themselves to a simple and accurate mathematical analysis. In the
following description we shall follow the above strategy. At the end however, the imperfections due to nonlinearities
shall be pointed out.

3.1 Position Control - a second order system

A second order system is represented in the standard form as,

where ζ is called the damping ratio and on the undamped natural frequency. Depending upon the value of ζ, the poles
of the system may be real, repeated or complex conjugate which is reflected in the nature of its step response. Results
obtained for various cases are :

(a) underdamped case (0< ζ <1)

(b) Critically damped case (ζ =1)

(c) Overdamped case (ζ >1)

Referring to Fig. 2, the transfer function G(s) of an armature controlled d.c. motor may be derived as [1].

where KM is Motor gain constant, and T the Mechanical time constant.

Considering proportional feedback only, the close loop transfer function of the system of Fig. 3 may be obtained as,

This gives unit step response similar to equations (1), (2) or (3) depending upon the value of KA. Thus the response of the
position control system can be altered by varying the amplifier gain KA, and a 'satisfactory' performance may usually be
obtained. This leads to the concept of performance characteristics as defined on the step response of an underdamped
second order system in Fig. 4 and explained in brief here.

(i) Delay time, td, is defined as the time needed for the response to reach 50% of the final value.

(ii) Rise time, tr is the time taken for the response to reach 100% of the final value for the first time. This is given by

(iii) Peak time, tp, is the time taken for the response to reach the first peak of the overshoot and is given by
(iv) Maximum overshoot. Mp, is defined

(V) Setling time, ts, is the time required by the system response to reach and stay within a prescribed tolerance band
which is usually taken as ±2% or ±5%. An approximate calculation based on the envelops of the response for a low
damping ratio system yields

ts (±5% tolerance band) = 3/ζωn

ts (±2% tolerance band) = 4/ζωn

• The position control system has a second order transfer function in the standard form.
• The system should not have any steady state error for step input.
• The transient response of the system is affected by the value of KA. A higher value of KA should result in larger
overshoot.

3.2 Tachogenerator feedback

It may be intuitively obvious that availability of a single adjustable parameter KA in the position control system is likely to
meet only one of the performance characteristics. In most cases however one is interested in at least two specifications
simultaneously e.g. steady state error and the damping factor or peak overshoot. In an electromechanical system this is
conveniently achieved through a tachogenerator feedback. Considering the tachogenerator feedback path also active in
Fig. 3, the closed loop transfer function is obtained as

It is easily seen that the steady state error to unit ramp is given by

ess = 1/KAKmKD, and the damping ratio by

ζ = (1+ KAKmKD) /2√(T KAKD)

Thus the specification of ess and 5 may be met simultaneously by a proper choice of KA and KD.

3.3 System Imperfections

All practical systems are imperfect to some extent. As a result of this, the actual system response differs from the ideal
response of Fig. 4, which is valid for a second order sistar system. Some of the contributing factors relevant to the
presented for s

(a) Saturation of armature current - necessary to protect, the driver from high currents when the motor starts or
reverses its direction. This implies limiting the maximum conents when for large errors leading to a slower response.

(b) Amplifier saturation - has effects similar to above although the saturation is now a circuit limitation.

(c) Dead zone - caused by a minimum voltage below which the motor would not start due to the friction of the brushes
and bearings. As a result of this the steady state error may be larger than expected.

(d) Nonlinear tachogenerator and motor characteristics - due to manufacturing inaccuracies.

(e) System order - may be actually more than two, due to load characteristics, delays and filters used.

• An accurate analysis taking into account the above mentioned imperfections would certainly prove to be exceedingly
complex. The experiments which follow therefore consider the system as it is, study the response and the effect of
tachogenerator feedback on the response. A qualitative comparison of the result of experiment with the theoretical
predictions for a second order linear system should be of great interest.

4. EXPERIMENTAL WORK

The experiments suggested below enable the reader to study the performance of the closed loop system with
proportional feedback and closed loop system with combined proportional and techogenerator feedback. Idea of dead
zone and its effect on steady state error is also introduced. A special provision has been made in the set-up to store and
display a response of the system a need which occurs quite frequently. The operation of this waveform capture/display
provision is described first.

4.1 Waveform Capture/Display

This card is designed to automatically store the response of the system in a RAM whenever a step input is given. The
stored response is then displayed on the CRO. Steps for its operation are as given below:

(a) Power ON the system and/or press the RESET switch - unit goes into DISPLAY the axes and shows the RAM contents
(zero at present).

(b) Press the MODE switch - the unit becomes ready to capture the step response.

(c) Applying step input now starts the storage. At the end of the capture cycle, the mode automatically shifts to DISPLAY
and the response waveform is seen on the CRO. response or pressing the RESET switch erases

(e) The time scale of the display may be calibrated by feeding the X-output (sawtooth) of the (d) Storage of a new unit to
the Y-input of the CRO and determining its time period and amplitude. the current waveform.

4.2 Closed loop study (Also see the Note at end, on page 10)

(a) Position control through CONTINUOUS command

• Ensure that the step command switch is OFF

• Starting from one end, move the COMMAND potentiometer in small steps and observe the rotation of the response
potentiometer.
• Record and plot OR, VR, Oo and Vo for a few values of KA.
• Calculate AOR and 400 (taking initial readings as nominal values) and plot. Also calculate the errors (AOR-400), (AVR-
AVo) at each step. Justify the presence of errors and their variation with KA.
b) Position control through STEP command

• Ensure that the tachogenerator feedback switch on the MOTOR UNIT is set to NEGATIVE.
• Adjust the reference potentiometer to get VR=0.
• Set KA to 2.
• Connect the CRO, calibrate the time scale, sec. 4.1(e), and switch to CAPTURE mode.
• Apply STEP input. Wait till storage is complete and the response is displayed. Trace the waveform from CRO.
• Compute Mp, ζ, tp, tr and the steady state error.
• Repeat for KA 3,4,....
• Now set KA=6, and choose various values of KD-0.1, 0.2... and repeat the above observations.
• Tabulate the results as shown in the next section and discuss:

◊ variation of maximum overshoot, rise time and steady state error with forward gain.

◊ effect of tachogenerator feedback on maximum overshoot, rise time and stability.

◊ effect of dead zone and saturation on step response.

• Compare your results with theoretical predictions assuming a second order system.

A set of observations with POSITIVE tachogenerator feedback may also be taken in the same manner as above.

5. TYPICAL RESULTS

Typical results obtained on a similar unit are next given for guidance. The reading and result have all been obtained using
the waveform capture and other built-in facilities of the unit. However, a set of step response recording obtained
through TEKTRONIX Storage CRO Type TDS-210 and its PC interface are shown on the facing pages of 8 & 9, purely for
general information

(a) Manual operation of the position control

Ko=0, Tachogenerator channel disabled

KA=5

S NO θR deg ΔθR deg θo deg Δθo deg ΔθR - Δθo Vr Vo Vr – Vo

1 0 - 193 - - -0.01 2.52 -2.53
2 30 30 219 26 4 -0.41 2.86 -3.27
3 60 60 248 55 5 -0.8 3.27 -4.07
4 90 90 275 82 8 -1.2 3.64 -4.84
5 120 120 307 114 6 -1.61 4.11 -5.72

The measured values of VR have negative signs which have not been inverted in the internal acuity for technical reasons.
These may however be read as positive and calculation should he made with positive values

(b) Calibration of X-output

In the DISPLAY mode with X-output connected to the Y-input of CRO. a sawtooth waveform is seen. On measurement,
Amplitude of sawtooth = 5.6 volts.
Time duration of the main linear part = 39 msec.
X-output scale factor is thus 6.96 msec/volt
The X-output waveform above consists of axis display part and waveform display r. The latter is identified by a much
longer time duration which has been measured above.
(c) Step response of the position control without tachogenerator feedback

Set KD=0 Vs =2.5 V (internally set)

Referring to fig 5

ess=Vs-Vo, where Vs and Vo may be measured by DVM

tp, t, may be obtained from CRO

ç may be calculated from Mp using the standard relation

• The open loop transfer function (excluding KA) comes out to be different for different readings - the system is not
actually a second order function.
• The peaks of the response curves are flattened - the motor has dead zone.
• The peak overshoot does not increase significantly with KA - motor armature currents is restricted.

d) Step response of the position control with tachogenerator feedback

KA = 7 Vs = 2.5 volts (internally set)