UPDATE
technology
Dynamic system simulation
Kevin Hogan
Ricardo Dunia
National Instruments
ONLINE
To see the first four parts
of this Programming
Methods series, see
www.controleng.com/
archives for the following
articles:
Aug. 2007 - Statecharts
halp program powerful
systems
Jul. 2007 - Function
block diagrams
Jun. 2007 - Textual
computation models
Mar. 2007 - Ladder logic
strengths and weaknesses
22 OCTOBER 2007 CONTROL ENGINEERING www.controleng.com
T
his is the final article of a five-part
series reviewing various programming
approaches to complex systems. Pre-
vious articles have focused on ladder
diagrams, function block diagrams, textual pro-
gramming, and statecharts. This article explores
a programming model for describing and simu-
lating the behavior of dynamic systems as they
change over timean often essential step in the
design of a controller system.
The term dynamic system usually refers to
a system whose state variables change in time.
In a mechanical system, these variables might
be the positions, velocities, and accelerations. In
electrical systems, currents and capacitor charg-
es usually provide state variables. In a chemical
system, the variables might be concentrations of
various reactants.
You may often want to control dynamic
systems, and the control algorithm itself is a
dynamic system (controller) with internal state
variables. To help design a complicated control
algorithm, you can simulate the interaction of
the controller and the plant offline.
Simulation of a dynamic system
To compute the state of a dynamic system at any
Control block diagram for a torsional pendulum system
Profile
PID
controller
Process variable
Low pass
filter cutoff
Setpoint
PID gains (x 2^8)
Notch filter frequency
Source: National Instruments and Control Engineering
Many control engineers prefer to visualize their systems in a control block diagram rather than
as a set of differential equations.
given time, it suffices to specify the initial values
of the systems state variables as well as a func-
tion that determines how quickly the variables
should be changing at any time:
x (t0)= x0
dx (t)= f (x(t),t)
dt
You can approximate time evolution of the
system as a series of states that it reaches in
time steps. Simplest, although usually least
accurate, is the Euler method, which computes
the state at the next time step by the Euler
formula:
x (tn+1)=x(tn)+dx (tn)(tn+1tn)
dt
There are other more accurate but more com-
plicated methods for approximating the systems
state, but they all work similarly to the Euler
equation, and all compute approximate states of
the system at a series of time steps.
Control block diagrams
Control engineers rarely think of their systems in
Position
Electric DC motor Plant
driver
Camera
technology update

Software tools help engineers create simulations in control block form. Source: National Instruments

terms of the differential equations. Rather, they of the system, which are driven not only by their
prefer to think in terms of separate, interacting initial conditions but also by the input variables.
components connected together as part of a con-
x (t0)= x0
trol block diagram. In a control block diagram,
the output of a component block may depend on dx (t)= f (x(t),u(t),t)
dt
the physical state of the component block and/
y(t)= g(x(t),u(t),t)
or its inputs. In addition, it is often necessary to
have output signals from the plant that feed back Note that the outputs are described as a func-
to the controller input. tion of the state variables and input variables,
Although they appear different, control block with no dynamics added but the ones provided
diagrams are equivalent to the differential equa- by the states.
tion representation. In general, a dynamic system You can place system blocks in a series,
block in the control block diagram is represented which indicates that for consecutive blocks, the
by a single box with internal state variables and outputs of a former block become the inputs of
time-varying input and output variables. the later one. For example, consider the case of
The input and output variables are signals a torsional pendulum. The actuator is an electric
injected into and extracted from the dynamic motor that provides torque based on the elec-
system to account for interaction among the dif- tric current supplied to the motor. The electric
ferent components in the block diagram. The current is determined by drive electronics that
state variables define the dynamic characteristics communicate to the PID controller. The PID
controller input is the
difference between
the reference (instan-
taneous value of the
set point as it moves
on its trajectory) and
the plant-block out-
put measured by a
camera that deter-
mines the position of
the top disc.
A typical control
loop feature is feed-
back interaction,
which is the connec-
tion of outputs from
Simulation tools can later system blocks
provide graphic repre- to the inputs of for-
sentations of system mer system blocks.
activity. Source: National In our example, the
Instruments plant-block output

24 OCTOBER 2007 CONTROL ENGINEERING www.controleng.com

 technology update
is an input for the PID controller. The
computed simulation model accounts
for feedback connections in a natural
fashion.
Simulation of a control block
diagram system
Several software toolsincluding NI
5.7" Color Touchpanel, QVGA
256 colors, TFT LCD display
Up to 1024 displays per application
HMI graphs- color-code application trends
Ethernet via TCP/IP
MODBUS, CANopen and UniCAN
GPRS/GSM/SMS support
Remote Access utilities
Unitronics, Inc., 1 Batterymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02169
Toll free: 866-666-6033, Tel: 617-657-6596 , Fax: 617-657-6598
www.unitronics.com . usa.sales@unitronics.com
26 SEPTEMBER 2007 CONTROL ENGINEERING www.controleng.com
MATRIXx suite, MathWorks Simulink
environment, and NI LabVIEW Con-
trol Design and Simulation Moduleare
available to describe a system using
control block diagrams and simulate the
systems behavior.
Software that simulates a control
block diagram generally runs the system
I/O options: via snap-in & expansion
modules, including HS I/Os, temperature
and weight measurement
Application memory: 2MB;
Fonts - 1MB; Images - 6MB
Scan time: 9 sec per 1K of
typical application
Auto-tune PID: up to 20
independent loops
Recipe programs and datalogging
Dynamic system block
u(t) System y(t)
x(t)
Source: National Instruments and Control Engineering
Each system block has inputs and out-
puts, as well as internal state variables.
as part of a large loop, with iterations of
the loop representing one time step of
the system. In addition, such software
provides several methods for solving
the system described by the diagram
including highly accurate variable-step-
size solvers suitable for quick offline
simulation, as well as fixed-step-size and
discrete solvers suitable for deployment
to a real-time target.
Some dynamic system simulation
products also make it easy to interact
directly with hardware in the diagram.
For example, the LabVIEW Control
Design and Simulation Module includes
functions for interfacing with data acqui-
sition devices.
In addition, many products provide
functions for porting a simulation to a
real-time implementation. For example,
you can use the NI LabVIEW Control
Design and Simulation Module to port
your simulation solution to real-time
targets such as NI CompactRIO and PXI
hardware.
In a control block diagram, all blocks
placed inside the simulation framework
execute according to the integration
solver defined for the simulation loop.
The blocks represent control blocks
that could execute at different sample
rates. This multirate execution is essen-
tial to determine the interaction of the
different mechanical-electrical devices
because devices placed inside a control
loop rarely all execute at the same sam-
pling rate.
Another benefit to using the simu-
lation model is that you can adjust
parameters on the fly as the simulation
progresses in time. You can modify the
PID controller gains and motor configu-
ration parameters to determine optimal
parameters for the closed-loop response.
Note also the feedback interconnection,
in which the pendulum position con-
technology update
nects to the controller input, is natu-
rally implemented inside the simulation
loop.
Finally, the implementation of a
simulation in a software package can
also make it easy to create complex user
interfaces.
28 SEPTEMBER 2007 CONTROL ENGINEERING www.controleng.com
Strengths and weaknesses
As with all computation models, dynam-
ic system simulation is more appropriate
in some programming situations and less
in others. It is important to understand
and incorporate the strengths and weak-
nesses of the computational model into
your software design decisions.
Strengths:
Intuitive, self-documenting repre-
sentations of dynamic systems. Cre-
ate descriptions of complex systems that
are easily read and understood by other
engineers.
Multiple options for advanced
simulation solver methods. Take
advantage of ready-made and tested
implementations of complex solver
methods such as Runge-Kutta, Adams,
and BDF solvers.
Multirate execution capability.
Easily and intuitively schedule control
blocks running at different rates.
Dynamic adjustment of param-
eters. Easily vary the parameters of the
control blocks during the course of the
simulation.
Weaknesses:
Incomplete programming system.
To represent functions that are not pro-
vided directly with the simulation suite,
you must combine the simulation system
with a general-purpose programming
language such as C or LabVIEW.
More time spent on analysis. To
break a system down into component
dynamic systems, you must conduct
some analysis.
With the simulation model of com-
putation, controls experts can develop
complicated control algorithms quickly
to test their interactions with simulated
plants and to deploy their control algo-
rithms to a variety of targets.
Kevin Hogan is a senior engineer for the
LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation
Module in LabVIEW R&D at National
Instruments in Austin, Texas. Hogan joined
NI in August 1999 and holds a masters in
computational applied mathematics from
The University of Texas at Austin.
Ricardo Dunia is a senior engineer for
the LabVIEW Control Design and Simula-
tion Module in LabVIEW R&D at National
Instruments in Austin, Texas. He is also a
lecturer for the Process Control senior class
in the Cockrell School of Engineering at
The University of Texas at Austin. Dunia
joined NI in March 2003 and holds a doc-
torate in chemical engineering from the
UT-Austin.
For More Information:
www.ni.com