Automatic Control Review

Experiment No. 1: Operational Amplifiers

Operational Amplifier is a very general purpose device used extensively in many applications, it’s a DC
Amplifier with a Very high gain and Very high input impedance [Zin].

Pre-Amplifier is a Differential Amplifier consists of 2 inputs and 2 outputs, a positive voltage at the input
junction gives a positive voltage at one output and a negative voltage at the other, and vice versa for a
negative input.

Zero adjustment balances the output {removes offset voltage}, and also enables an output to be
obtained without input if required, Remember always calibrate AFTER wiring the whole circuit to take
into consideration the Loading effect.

Experiment No. 2: DC Servo Sensors

A Sensor {or a Transducer} is a device that converts a measured signal in a control circuit into a signal in
a different form. {Converts energy from one form to another}.

The output of the sensor may be force, displacement, voltage, electrical resistance, or any other physical
quantity.

Position Sensors :

a. Potentiometers : a variable resistor used to convert angle {or displacement} to a resistance/

voltage.
Vout = Vin * a/L Where; L is the actual Length, a is the output cursor length.

b. Rotational Potentiometers: in this case output curse rotates in a circle instead of the
translational movement in the ordinary Pots.
Vout = Vin* θ/ θMax

Speed Sensors :

Tacho-Generator, a special DC Generator can be used to measure speed, generated voltage can be gives
as :

Eg = K g * ω Where ; Kg = .0026 V s / rad.

ω : Motor Speed
Taco-Generator’s Flux is obtained using a Permanent Magnet, Hence flux is Constant.

In Motors, for : ω ≤ ωr Armature Controlled

ω ≥ ωr Field Controlled

Where; ωr: Rated Speed.

Reasons of Non-Linearity :

1. Dead Band: increase in input with No output at all.

2. Saturation: increase in input with constant output.
3. Back Clash.

Experiment No. 3: DC Servo Motor, Speed Control

Process Control : the controlled variable or output must be held as close as possible to a usually
constant desired value, despite any disturbances.

Servomechanism : the input varies and the output must be made to follow it as closely as possible.

Reasons behind Feedback:

1. Reducing the Sensitivity of the performance to parameter variations of the plant.

2. Reducing the sensitivity to disturbance inputs and noise, since sensitivity reduction is central
to control system design.
3. Improve transient response.
4. Reducing steady-state errors.

Note that Bi-directional rotation of a Armature controlled motor can be performed using a preamplifier
unit.

Motor Transfer Function Block Diagram :

If Gear is added between motor and load, the angle moved by the load is different than the angle moved
by the motor.

If armature inductance La is ignored, model becomes a second order system.

Experiment No. 4: DC Servo Motor, Position Control

A Common requirement is for a motor to rotate an output shaft to the same angle as input shaft, in a
position control systems the input and output sensors must measure shaft angles and produce a control
signal {error} proportional to the angle between the shafts.

Factors that affect performance in a servo-system:

1. Dead Band: the minimum signal that is needed for the system to respond.
2. Transient response: in terms of overshoot and Settling time.

Ideal output of a servo-system is to have the output follow the input without any difference, yet it’s
impossible to obtain that.

Hence what is needed is some arrangement to enable High gain and fast response with the minimum
settling time and overshoot.

Trials :

1. Applying a load to the output shaft proportional to speed {by using a magnetic break for
example}, yet it wastes power due to lead.
2. Installing a mechanical damper on the motor shaft, or
3. Use of Feedback.

Direct measurement of speed is generally preferable to taking the derivative of the measured position
signal, since derivative circuit reacts to the rate of change of its input signal, hence its output is very
sensitive to noise.

Last but not Least, The importance of velocity feedback may be judged from the availability of motors
with integrally mounted tacho-meters on the shaft.

Experiment No. 5: PID Controller

The proportional term P (sometimes called gain) makes a change to the output that is proportional to
the current error value. The proportional response can be adjusted by multiplying the error by a
constant Kp, called the proportional gain.

The integral term I (when added to the proportional term) accelerates the movement of the process
towards set point and eliminates the residual steady-state error that occurs with a proportional only
controller. However, since the integral term is responding to accumulated errors from the past, it can
cause the present value to overshoot the set point value (cross over the set point and then create a
deviation in the other direction).

The derivative term D slows the rate of change of the controller output and this effect is most
noticeable close to the controller set point. Hence, derivative control is used to reduce the magnitude of
the overshoot produced by the integral component and improve the combined controller-process
stability. However, differentiation of a signal amplifies noise and thus this term in the controller is highly
sensitive to noise in the error term, and can cause a process to become unstable if the noise and the
derivative gain are sufficiently large.

Summary
Proportional gain, Kp

Larger values typically mean faster response since the larger the error, the larger the proportional term
compensation. An excessively large proportional gain will lead to process instability and oscillation.

Integral gain, Ki

Larger values imply steady state errors are eliminated more quickly. The trade-off is larger overshoot:
any negative error integrated during transient response must be integrated away by positive error
before reaching steady state.

Derivative gain, Kd

Larger values decrease overshoot, but slow down transient response and may lead to instability due to
signal noise amplification in the differentiation of the error.

Effects of increasing a parameter independently

Parameter Rise time Overshoot Settling time Steady-state error Stability

Kp Decrease Increase Small change Decrease Degrade

Ki Decrease Increase Increase Decrease significantly Degrade

Kd Minor decrease Minor decrease Minor decrease No effect in theory Improve if Kd small