Principles of Control Systems

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO CONTROL SYSTEMS

1.1 Introduction

In recent years, control systems have assumed an increasingly important role in the
development and advancement of modern civilisation and technology. Practically, every
aspect of our day-to-day activities is affected by some type of control systems. For
instance, automatic control air-conditioner controlled the temperature and the humidity in
house and building to give comfortable life to the users.

Control systems play very important role in many modern manufacturing industries such
as automatic assembly system, computer control, machine-tool control, transportation
systems, robotics and many others.

1.1.1 Definition of control system

A control system is an interconnection of components forming a system configuration

that would provide a desired output in response to input signals.

Figure 1.1

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1.1.2 History of control systems

The selected historical developments of control systems are listed below:

1769: James Watt’s steam engine and governor development. The Watt steam engine
is often used to mark the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain.
During the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain strides were made in the
development of mechanisation, a technology preceding automation.

1800: Eli Whitney’s a concept of interchangeable parts manufacturing demonstrated in

the production of muskets. Whitney’s development is often considered as the
beginning of mass production.

1868: J. C. Maxwell formulates a mathematical model for a governor control of a steam

engine.

1913: Henry Ford’s mechanised assembly machine introduced to automobile production.

1927: H. W. Bode analyses feedback amplifiers.

1932: H. Nyquist develops method for analysing the stability of systems

1.2 Control Terminology

It is very important to know the basic terminologies before discussing further on control
systems. The common terminologies are listed below:

a) Controlled variable: The controlled variable is the quantity or condition that is

measured and controlled
b) Manipulated variable: The manipulated variable is the quantity or condition that is
varied by the controller so as to affect variable value of the controlled variable.
c) Plants: A plant is a piece of equipment perhaps just a set of machine parts
functioning together, to perform a particular operation.

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d) Process: A process is to be a natural, progressively continuing operation or

development marked by a series of gradual changes that succeed one another in
relatively fixed way and lead toward a particular result
e) System: A system is combination of components that act together and perform a
certain objective. A system is not limited to physical ones. The concept of the
system can be applied to abstract, dynamic phenomena such as those encountered
in economics. The word system should be therefore, be interpreted to imply
physical, biological, and economic.
f) Disturbance: A disturbance is a signal that tends to adversely affect the value of
the out signal. If the disturbance is generated within the system is called internal,
while an external disturbance is generated outside the system and is an input to the
systems.
g) Open-loop(Non-feedback) system: An open-loop system utilises an actuating
device to control the process directly without using feedback
h) Feedback control/closed-loop system: A closed-loop system uses a measurement
of the output and feedback of this signal to compare it with the desired output
(reference or command).

1.3 Basic components of a control system

The basic ingredients of a control system can be described by:

a) Objectives of control (Input)
b) Control system components(plant/process)
c) Results (outputs)

The basic relationship between these three components is illustrated in block diagram
shown in figure 1.2.

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OBJ ECTIVES RESULTS

INPUT, R OUTPUT, Y
CONTROL SYSTEM

Figure 1.2: Basic components of a control system

In more technical terms, the objectives can be identified with inputs, or actuating signals,
R or U, and the results are called outputs, or the controlled variables, Y. In general the
objectives of control system can be to:
a) Control/regulate the output from some process to be constant at the
required/desired value.
b) Make the process output follow a particular changing form
c) Make events in a particular sequence. This might be the sequence which is time
driven with events occurring at particular times or event driven so that events
occur when certain conditions are realised.

Figure 1.3 shows the examples of control systems

(a)

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(b)

(c)

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(d)
Figure 1.3 (a): Traffic light system (sequence –time/event)
(b): Washing Machine (sequence –time/event)
(c): Turntable speed control
(d): Steering a car on a curve road

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1.4 Closed-loop Control Versus Open-loop Control

An open-loop system is a system where the input has no effect on the control action. In
other words, in an open-loop control system the output is neither measured nor feedback
for comparison with the input. The elements of an open-loop control system can usually
be divided into two parts that are the controller and the process as shown in figure 1.4

Actuating Controlled variable,

Reference input, R signal, U output, Y
CONTROLLER PLANT

Figure 1.4: Block diagram of an open-loop control system

Examples in figure 1.3 (a), traffic light system and (b), washing machine are the examples
of open-loop control systems. In any open system the output is not compared with the
reference input. Thus, to each reference input there correspond a fixed operating
condition; as a result, the accuracy of the system depends on calibration. In practice, only
if the relationship between input and output is known and if there are neither internal nor
external disturbances.

What is missing in the open-loop control system for more accurate and more adaptive
control is link or feedback from the output to the input of the system. To obtain more
accurate control, the controlled signal (output), Y should fed back and compared with the
reference input and actuating signal proportional to the difference(error) of the input and
the output must be sent through the system to correct the error and this system is called
closed-loop system. The basic components of a closed-loop control system are shown in
figure 1.5.

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Reference Error
input, R signal, E output, Y
CONTROLLER PLANT

+
- C G

SENSOR
Feedback H

Figure 1.5: The basic components of a closed-loop control system

Table 1 shows the advantages and disadvantages of an open-loop and closed-loop control
systems.

Type of system Advantages Disadvantages

1. Open-loop control 1. Simple construction and 1. The system response very
system ease of maintenance. sensitive to external
2. Less expensive than a disturbance and internal
corresponding closed- variations in system
loop control system parameters.
3. There is no stability 2. Recalibration is necessary
problem from time to time in order
4. Convenient when output to maintain the required
is hard to measure or quality in the output
measuring the output
precisely is
economically not
feasible.
2. Closed-loop control 1. Makes the 1. Risk instability
system system response 2. Complexity in analysis and
relatively insensitive to implementation and
external disturbance and expensive
internal variations in
system parameters.
2. Possible to
use relatively inaccurate
and inexpensive
components to obtain
the accurate control of a
given plant.
3. Better control of
transient & steady-state
response
4. Increased accuracy
-Increased ability to
reproduce output with

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varied input.
1.5 Principle of feedback and its effects

The feedback is used for reducing the error between the reference input and the system
output. However the significance of the effects of control systems is more complex than
is demonstrated by the previous examples. Applying the feedback to the system causes
effects on system performance such as stability, bandwidth, overall gain, disturbance and
sensitivity. By simple algebraic manipulations, it is simple to show the relationship
between input and output is given by:
Y G
M = = (1.1)
R 1 + GH

1.5.1 Effect of Feedback on Overall Gain

A seen from eq. (1.1), feedback affects the gain G of the non-feedback system by a factor
1 + GH (for negative feedback). General effect of feedback is that it increase or decrease
the gain G. In a practical control system G and H are functions of frequency, so the
magnitude of 1 + GH may greater than 1 in one frequency range but less than 1 in
another. Therefore, feedback could increase or decrease the system gain in one frequency
range but decrease it in another.

1.5.2 Effect of Feedback on Stability

Stability is a notion that describes whether the system will be able to follow the input
command. In a non-rigorous manner, a system is said to be unstable if its output is out of
control. To investigate the effect of feedback on stability, again refer to eq. (1.1).If GH =
-1, the output of the system is infinite for any finite input, and the system is said to be
unstable. Therefore we can state that feedback can cause a system that is originally stable
to become unstable.

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1.5.3 Effect of Feedback on Sensitivity

Sensitivity considerations often are important in the design of control systems. In general,
a good control system should be very insensitive to parameter variations but sensitive to
input commands. The sensitivity of the gain of the overall system, M to the variation in G
is defined as:

S GM = δM/M = Percentage change in M (1.2)

δG/G Percentage change in G

Where δM denotes the incremental change in M due to the incremental change in G, δG.
Using eq. (1.1), the sensitivity function is written:

∂M G 1 (1.3)
S GM = =
∂G M 1 + GH

This relationship shows that if GH is a positive constant, the magnitude of the sensitivity
function can be made arbitrarily small by increasing GH, provided that the system remain
stable. In general feedback can increase or decrease the sensitivity of the system.

1.5.4 Effect of Feedback on External Disturbance or Noise

All physical systems are subject to some types of extraneous signals or noise during
operation. Examples of these signals are thermal-noise voltage in electronic circuit and
brush or commutator noise in electric motors. External disturbance, such as wind acting
on antenna, is also quite common in control systems. Therefore in the design of a control
system, considerations should be given so that the system is insensitive to noise and
disturbance and sensitive to input command.

The effect of feedback on noise and disturbance depends greatly on where these
extraneous signals occur. No general conclusion can be made, but in many situations,
feedback can reduce the effect of noise and disturbance on system performance.

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