Controllers

Topics Covered
 Controller

 Properties of Controllers

 Classification of Controllers

 Continuous Controllers modes

 Proportional Control mode

 Integral Control mode

 Derivative Control mode

 Composite Control modes(PI-PD-PID)

 Steady State Error

 Illustrative Problems.
What is a Controller/Control System …?
• A Controller is a device introduced in the system to modify the error signal
and to produce a control signal to obtain Actual response.
• A Control System consists of Subsystems and Processes (or plants) assembled
for the purpose of obtaining a desired output with desired performance,
given a specified input.

Input Control Output

Desired Response System Actual Response
Block Diagram of a Control System

Controller Output Controlled Output

r(t) e(t) Process to be

Controller
controlled
b(t)

Error Detector Sensing

Feedback
Element

Feedback Signal
• The actual output is sensed by a sensor and converted to a proper feedback
signal b(t) using a feedback element.
• The feedback signal is compared with the reference input and generate an
error signal to feed the controller
• The output of the controller applied to the process or final control element.
This brings the output back to its desired set point value.
• The accuracy of the entire system depends on how sensitive is the controller to
the error detected and how it is manipulating such an error.
• For example the actual output variable may be temperature, but using
thermocouple as the feedback element, the feedback signal b(t) is an
electrical voltage.
• The thermocouple senses the output temperature and produces
corresponding electrical e.m.f as the feedback signal.
• Hence actual output variable sensed and feedback signal may be having
different forms.
• Now the error signal generated by comparing the feedback signal with the
reference input and give it as input to the controller
 Properties of Controllers:
• Error

• Variable Range

• Controller Output Range

• Control Lag

• Dead Zone
Error
The error detector compares the feedback signal b(t) with the reference
input r(t) to generate an error.

• This gives an absolute indication of error.

• For example set point for a range of 5mV to 20mV is 12mV and the feedback
signal is 11.8mV, then the error is 0.2mV, but actual variable to be controlled
may be different in such as temperature, pressure, etc.
• Hence to obtain the correct information from the error, it is expressed in
percentage form related to the controller operation.
• It expressed as the percentage of Span (), where span is the measured variable
range of b(t). i.e.,
where = error as % span
Q1. The range of measured variable for a certain control system is 2mV to 12mV
and a set point of 7mV. Find the error as percent of span when measured
variable is 6.5mV.

Solution:

= 12mV = 2mV

b = 6.5mV r = 7mV

Therefore
Variable Range

• In practical systems, the controlled variable has a range of values within which
the control is required to be maintained.
• This range is specified as the maximum and minimum values allowed for the
controlled variable.
• It can be specified as some nominal values and plus/minus tolerance allowed
about this value.
• Such range is important for the design of controller

Controller Output Range

• Similar to the controlled variable, a range is associated with a controller
output variable.
• The controller output as a percent of full scale when output changes within
the specified range is expressed as,

• controller output as a percent of full scale

• value of the output.

• maximum value of the controlling variable
• minimum value of the controlling variable
Control Lag
• The control system can have a lag associated with it.

• The control lag is the time required by the process and controller loop to
make the necessary changes to obtain the output at its set point.
• The control lag must be compared with the process lag designing the
controllers.
• For example in a process a valve is required to be open or closed for
controlling the output variable.
• Physically the action of opening or closing of the valve is very slow and is
the part of the process lag.
• In such a case there is no point in designing a fast controller than the
process lag.
Dead Zone

• Many times a dead zone is associated with a process control loop.

• The time corresponding to dead zone is called dead time.

• The time elapsed between the instant when error occurs and the instant
when the first corrective action occurs is called dead time.
• Nothing happens in the system, during this time though the error occurs.

• This part is also called dead band.

• The effect of such dead time must be considered while the design of the
controllers.
 Classification of Controllers:
• It is based on the response of the controller and mode of operation of the
controller.
• For example in a simple temperature control of a room, the heater is to be
controlled. It should be switched on or off by the controller when
temperature crosses its set point.
• Such an operation of controller is discontinuous mode of controller.
• But in some process control systems, simple on/off decision is not sufficient.
• For example, controlling the steam flow by opening and closing the valve. In
such a case a smooth opening or closing of valve is necessary.
• The controller in such a case is said to be operating in a continuous mode.
• Discontinuous mode Controllers

1. ON-OFF controllers and

2. Multi position controllers

• Continuous mode Controllers

1. proportional controllers,

2. Integral controllers

3. Derivative controllers

4. Proportional-plus-Integral Controllers

5. Proportional-plus-Derivative Controllers.

6. Proportional-plus-Integral-plus-Derivative Controllers
• Most controllers are placed in forward path of control system.
Continuous Controllers modes:

• In continuous controller mode, the controller output varies smoothly

proportional to the error or proportional to the some form of the error.
• Depending upon which form of error is used, as the input to the controller,
to produce the continuous controller output, these controllers are
classified as,
– Proportional control mode

– Integral control mode

– Derivative control mode

Proportional control mode:
• In this mode, the output of a controller is simple proportional to the error e(t).
• The relation between the error e(t) and the controller output P is determined
by a constant called Proportional gain constant as .
• The output of the controller is a linear function of error e(t).
• Even though there exists a linear relation between controller output and error,
for a zero error the controller output should not be zero, otherwise the process
comes to halt. Hence there exists some controller output , for the zero error.
Mathematical expression for proportional control mode is
…(1)
Where = proportional gain constant
= controller output with zero error.
• The direct and reverse actions are possible in this mode, because error(r-b)
may be positive or negative, b can be less or grater than the set point r.
• Direct action - If the controlled variable, i.e. input to the controller increases,
causing increase in the controller output is called Direct action.
• For example output of the valve is to be controlled to maintain the liquid level
in a tank. So if the level increase the valve should be opened more to maintain
the level.
• Reverse action - If the controlled variable decreases, causing increase in the

controller output or increase in the controlled variable, causing decrease in

the controller output is called reverse action.

• For example simple heater control for maintaining temperature, if the

temperature increases, the drive to the heater must be decreased.

• So if e(t)is negative then e(t) gets subtracted from and e(t) is positive, then

e(t) gets added to , this is reverse action.

• So equation (1) represents the reverse action, but using the negative sign to

the correction term e(t), the direct action proportional control can be

achieved.
• The proportional Control mode depends on the proper design of .

• For a fixed , if the gain is high then large output results for small error but

narrow error band can be handled. Beyond these limits of error, the output

will be saturated.

• If the gain small then the response is smaller but large error band can be

handled.
• For proportional band is mathematically defined by
Characteristics of Proportional mode:

• When the error is zero, the controller output is constant, equal to .

• If the error occurs, then for every 1 % of the error the correction of % is
achieved. If the error is positive, % correction gets added to and if the error is
negative, % correction gets subtracted from .
• The band of error exists for which the output of the controller is between 0 %
to 100 % without saturation.
• The gain and the error band PB are inversely proportional to each other.
Offset:
• The major disadvantage is the proportional control mode is that it produces
offset error in the output.
• When the load changes, output deviates from the set point, such a deviation
is called offset error or steady state error.
• The offset error depends upon the reaction rate of the controller. Slow
reaction rate produces small offset error while fast reaction rate produces
large offset error.
• The dead time or transfer lag present in the system further worsens the
results. It produces not only the large offset at the output but the time
required to achieve steady state is also large.
• The offset error can be minimized by the large proportional gain which
reduces the proportional band.
• If is made very large proportional band becomes so small that it acts as an
ON/OFF controller producing oscillations about the set point instead of a
offset error.
Applications

The proportional controller can be suitable where,

1. Manual reset of the operating point is possible.

2. Load changes are small.

3. The dead time exists in the system is small.

 Integral Control mode:

• In proportional control mode, error reduces but can not go to zero.

• It finally produces an offset error, it can not adapt with the changing load
conditions.
• To avoid this, another control mode is often used in the control systems
which is based on the history of errors.
• This mode is called integral mode or reset action controller.
• In such controller, the value of controller output p(t) is changed at a rate
which is proportional to the actuating error signal e(t).
• Mathematically it is expressed as,

where = Constant relating error and rate or it is also called Integral

constant
• Integrating the above equation, actual controller output at any time t can be
obtained as, …(2)

where Controller output when the integral action starts i.e. at t=0
• The output signal from the controller, at any instant is the area under the
actuating error signal curve up to that instant.
• If the value of the error is doubled, the value of p(t) varies twice as fast i.e.
rate of the controller output change also doubles.

• If the error is zero, the controller output is not changed. The control signal

p(t) can have nonzero value when the error signal e(t) is zero.

• This is because of the output depends on the history of the error and not on

the instantaneous value of the error.

e(t) p(t)
• The scale factor or constant expresses the scaling between error and the
controller output.
• Thus a large value of means that a small error produces a large rate of change
of p(t) and vice versa. This is shown in below figure.
• If there is a positive error, the controller output begins to ramp up.

𝒅𝒑 ( 𝒕 )
𝒅𝒕
Step response of integral mode:

• The integration time constant is the time

taken for the output to change by an
amount equal to the input error step.
• It can be seen that when error is positive,
the output p(t) ramps up.
• For zero error, there is no change in the
output.
• When the error is negative , the output p(t)
ramps down..
Characteristics of integral mode:

• The integral controller is relatively slow controller.

• It changes its output at a rate which is dependent on the integrating time

constant, until the error signal is cancelled.

• Compared to the proportional integral control requires time to build up an

appreciable output.

• However it continues to act till error signal disappears. This corrects the

problem of offset error in the proportional controller.

Characteristics of integral mode:

• For example, let us assume that the integral controller is used to control the
armature current of a DC motor and to keep its value constant at 500 A.
• As long as the armature current is less than 500 A, the armature voltage,
controlled by the controller, will increase.
• Thus the output of the controller will increase and will continue to do so till
the error becomes zero i.e. armature current becomes 500 A. Then the
controller output will remain at that value reached.
• The output of the controller can remain at any value with its range, if the
input is zero.
• The controller must not be overdriven as it will not then be effective.
For integral mode,

1. If the error is zero, the output remains at a fixed value equal to what it was,
when the error becomes zero.

2. If the error is not zero, then the output begins to increase or decrease, at a
rate per second per every of error.
• In some times inverse of is called integral time is specified as .

It is expressed in minutes instead of seconds.

Applications:
Controller Initial behaviour Steady state behaviour
Acts immediately, Offset error always present. Larger
P
Action according to . the smaller the error.
Acts slowly. It is the time Error signal is always becomes
I
integral of the error signal. zero.

• It can be seen that proportional mode is more favourable at start while the
integral is better for steady state response.
• In pure integral mode, error can be oscillates about zero and can be cyclic.
Hence it is never used alone but combination of proportional mode to
enjoy the advantageous of both the modes.
Derivative Control mode:
• In practice the error is function of time and a particular instant it can be
zero. But it may not remain zero forever after that instant.
• Hence some action is required corresponding to the rate at which the error
is changing. Such a controller is called a derivative controller.
• In this mode, the output of a controller depends on the time rate of change
of the actual errors. Hence it is called rate action mode or anticipatory
action mode.
• The mathematical expression for the mode is,

where = derivative gain constant expressed in minutes.

• The derivative gain constant indicates by how much % the controller
output must change for every % per sec rate of change of error.
• The important feature of this type of control mode is that for a given rate
of change of error signal, there is a unique value of the controller output.
• Advantages: It responds to the rate of change of error and can produce the
significant correction before the magnitude of actuating error becomes too
large.
• Thus it anticipating the actuating error, initiates an early corrective action
and tends to increase stability of the system improving the transient
response.
Characteristics of Derivative Control mode:

• Figure shows how derivative mode changes the controller output for the
various rates of change of the error.
• The controller output is 50 % for the zero error.

• When the error starts increasing, the controller output suddenly jumps to
the higher values.
• If further jumps to a higher value for higher rate of increase of error.

• Then error becomes constant, the output returns to 50 %.

• When error is decreasing i.e. having negative slope, controller output

decreases suddenly to a lower value.
Characteristics of Derivative Control mode:
The various characteristics of derivative mode are

1. For a given rate of change of error signal, there is a unique value of

controller output.

2. When the error is zero the output of controller is zero.

3. When the error is constant i.e. rate of change of error is zero, the

controller output is zero.

4. When the error is changing, the controller output changes by % for every

1 % rate of change of error.

Applications:

• When the error is zero or constant, the derivative controller output is zero.

Hence it never used alone.

• Its gain should be small because of faster rate of change of error can cause

very large sudden change of controller output.

• This may lead to the instability of the system.

 Composite control modes:
• As we discussed earlier, due to offset error proportional mode is not used
alone.
• Similarly integral and derivative modes are also not used individually in
practice.
• Thus take advantageous of various modes together, the composite control
modes are used.
• They are classified as,

1. Proportional + Integral mode (PI)

2. Proportional + Derivative mode (PD)

3. Proportional + Integral + Derivative mode (PID)

 Proportional + Integral (PI control Mode)
• Thus the composite control mode obtained by combining the proportional
mode and the integral mode.
• The mathematical expression for such a composite controller is

Where p(0) = initial value of output at t = 0

• one to one correspondence of proportional mode is available while the offset
gets eliminated due to integral mode,
• the integral part provides a reset of the zero error output after a load change
occurs.
• Consider the load changes occurs at t = and due to which error varies.

• The controller output changes suddenly by amount of due to proportional

action.
• Then the controller output changes linearly w.r.t time at a rate .
• The reset rate is defined as the reciprocal of .
Applications:
• The composite PI mode completely removes the offset problems of
proportional mode.
• Such a mode can be used in the systems with the frequent or large load
changes.
• But the process must have relatively slow changes in load, to prevent the
oscillations.
 Proportional + Derivative (PD Control Mode)
• This is series combination of proportional and derivative control

• The mathematical expression for the PD composite control is,

• The ramp function of error occurs at t = . The derivative mode causes a step
at and proportional mode causes a rise of equal to at .
• This is for direct action PD control.
PD type of Controller:
• A controller in the feedback path, which changes the controller output
corresponding to proportional plus derivative of error signal is called PD
Controller.
i.e.
• Taking Laplace = K E(s) + s E(s) = E(s)[ K + s ]
• The transfer function of such controller is [ K + s ] and realized as following
figure.
Assuming K = 1, we can write,

and
Comparing denominator with standard form, is same as in the P type
controller.

and

Because of this controller, damping ratio increases by a factor

• As there is no change in coefficients, error also will remain same.

PD Controllers have the following effects on the system

I. It increases damping ratio.

II. for system remains unchanged.

III. of the system remains unchanged.

IV. It reduces peak Overshoot.

V. It reduces settling time.

VI. Steady state error remains unchanged.

VII. In general P.D Controller improves transient part without affecting

steady state.
PI Type of Controller:
• A Controller in the forward path, which changes the controller output corresponding to
the proportional plus integral of the error signal is called PI controller.

i.e. Output of a controller =

• Taking Laplace =
• The transfer function of such controller is and can be realized as shown in the figure.
Assuming K = 1, we can write,

i.e. System becomes TYPE 2 in nature, and

i.e. it becomes third order.

• Now as order increases by one, system relatively becomes less stable as
must be designed in such a way that system will remain in stable condition.
• Hence transient response gets affected badly if controller is not designed
properly.
While

Hence as type is increased by one, error becomes zero for ramp type of
inputs i.e. steady state of system gets improved and system becomes more
accurate in nature.

PD Controllers have the following effects on the system

I. It increase order of the system.

II. It increase TYPE of the system.

III. Design of must be proper to maintain stability of system. So it makes

system relatively less stable

IV. Steady state error reduces the tremendously same type of inputs.

V. In general this type of controller improves steady state part affecting the
transient part.
PID Type Controller
• As PD improves transient and PI improves steady state, combination of two may
be used to improve overall time response of the system.
• This can be realized as shown in the figure.

• The design of such controller is complicated in practice.

 Rate Feedback Controller(Output Derivative Controller):

• This is achieved by feeding back the derivative of output signal

internally using a tachometer and comparing with signal proportional
to error as shown.

• This is called minor loop feedback compensation.

Output of Controller =

Output of the controller = sC(s) …taking Laplace

• This can be realized as shown in figure.

• Assuming K = 1, let us study its effect on

system which is considered earlier with

G(s) =
 Steady state error:
• Consider a simple closed loop system using negative feedback as shown in figure.

Where E(s) = Error signal and

B(s) = Feedback signal
Now, E(s) = R(s) – B(s)
But

For unity feedback systems H(s) = 1

 Now steady state of the system is that the state which remains as t

The steady state error,

Using Final value theorem

For negative feedback systems use positive sign in denominator while use
negative sign in denominator if system uses positive feedback.

steady state error depends on

I. R(s) i.e. reference input, its type and magnitude.

II. G(s)H(s), i.e. open lop transfer function’

III. Dominant nonlinearities present if any.

Q1. the figure shows PD controller used for the system. Determine the value of
so that system will be critically damped. Calculate settling time.
Solution:
G(s) =

Comparing the denominator with standard form,

Now system required is critically damped, i.e.

4
= 0.6 and settling time =
=
Q2. For the system shown determine % and when it is excited by unit step
input. If for the same system, PD controller having constant = 1/30 is used in
forward path, determine new values of damping ratio, and Draw respective
waveforms.
Solution: without controller,

Given that and

Now the closed loop Transfer function is

and

.
With controller:
The closed loop transfer function with PD controller is
 2𝛏 𝛏=

𝛏 is improved,

Overshoot decreased to 2.3 % from 9.47 %

.
• Comparison: Following figure shows comparison between system with controller and
system without controller.
Q3. An Integral Controller is used for temperature control with in a range 40-
C. The set point is C. The controller output is initially 12 % when error is zero.
The integral constant controller output per second per percentage error. If
the temperature increases to C, calculate the controller output after 2 sec for
a constant error.

Solution: For integral controller,

where = error
Now r = Set point = C

b = actual temperature = C

This is the controller output after 2 sec

Q4. A proportional controller is employed for the control of temperature in
the range of with a set point of The zero error controller output is 50%. What
will be the offset error resulting from a change in the controller output to
55%? The proportional gain is 2 % / %. Find the offset in temperature.
Solution: For Proportional control mode

P=

Where Controller output with no error = 50 %

2 % per %

The offset error is 2.5 %

The range of to so C

2.5 =
Q5. A PID Controller has sec and = 40 %. Draw the plot of controller
output for error of figure.
Solution:
From the given error plot,
For 0 – 2 sec,

where

For 2 – 4 sec,

Two points on the line are (2, 2) and (4, -3).

For 4 – 6 sec,

Two points on the line are (4, -3) and (6, 0)

Three mode equations for PID Control is,

For 0 -2 sec,

…(1)
At the end of 2 sec, the integral term has accumulated to,

For 2 – 4 sec,

…(2)
At the end of 4 sec, the integral term has accumulated to,

For 4 – 6 sec,

…(3)

After 6 sec, error is zero hence the output will simply be the accumulated
integral response providing a constant output.
Q6. A temperature control system has the block diagram given in below figure.
The input signal is voltage and represents the desired temperature is a small
unit step function and
i) D(s) =1 ii) D(s) = 1 + (0.1/s) iii) D(s) = 1 + 0.3s.
What is the effect of the integral term in the PI controller and derivative term
in PD controller on the steady state error?
+

+ 0.3s

Due to PI controller, the steady state error reduces drastically while

PD controller has no effect on the steady state error.
Solution: For the given system,

; ; and