Course title: Control systems

Course code: EEE-359

Fahim Mahmud
Assistant Professor
Department of EEE
CUET
Course outline
• Introduction to control system
• Modeling in the frequency domain
• Modeling in the time domain
• Stability analysis
• Controller design
Textbook and reference book
• Control systems engineering – Norman S. Nise (textbook)
• Modern control engineering – Katsuhiko Ogata (reference)
Class outline
• Control system definition
• Examples of control system
• Advantages of control system
• System configurations (open and closed-loop)
• Analysis and design objectives
• The design process
• Test waveforms used in control systems
Control system
• A system which consists of a number of components to perform a specific function is called a
control system.
• A control system is a system which consists of subsystems assembled for the purpose of obtaining
a desired output with desired performance given a specified input.

Fig-1: Simplified description of a control system

Examples of artificial control system
• Air conditioner (controls the room temperature)
• Refrigerator (controls the food temperature)
• Elevator (controls the movement of the elevator box to desired destination)
• Vehicle (controls the speed, position etc. to desired destination)
• Ceiling fan (controls the speed of the motor)
• Microwave oven (controls the motor of turntable, heat-guide, temperature of the food, cooking
time etc.)
• And many more……
Examples of natural control systems
• Body temperature regulation (hypothalamus of brain decides whether to sweat to reduce body
temperature or to shiver to generate heat to keep the body warm)
• Blood glucose regulation (pancreas releases insulin and glucagon hormone to lower or increase
blood sugar, respectively)
• Blood pressure regulation (medulla oblongata of brain perceives the blood pressure via
baroreceptors and adjusts the heart rate accordingly to maintain normal blood pressure)
• Breathing rate control (brainstem senses the carbon dioxide level in blood via chemoreceptors and
decides on whether to increase the breathing rate or not to maintain typical oxygen level in blood)
• And many more…
Examples of nonphysical control
systems
• Student performance system (study time is input and grade is output)
• Employee performance management system (training, motivation and resources provided to
employees are considered as input and job performance such as task completion, quality, etc. are
output)
• Think more yourselves…
Advantages of control system
• Power amplification
• Remote control
• Convenience of input signal form
• Compensation for disturbances
Open-loop system
• The systems in which the output has no effect on the control action are called open-loop system.
• In other words, in an open-loop control system, the output is neither measured nor fed back for
comparison with the input (reference) signal.
• Washing machine is an example of an open-loop system. Here, soaking, washing and ringing in the
washer operate on a predefined time basis set by the user. The machine does not measure the
output of the system, that is, the cleanliness of the cloth.
• Any idea on how we can convert the cleanliness of the cloth to something electrical in nature so
that we can feed it back and make a closed-loop system?
• A toaster is another example of an open-loop system.
• Electric hand drier, coffee machine, inkjet printer etc. are examples of open-loop system.
Open-loop system…
• Open-loop systems are simple and inexpensive.
• Open-loop systems cannot compensate for disturbances.

Fig-2: Block diagram of an open-loop system

Closed-loop system
• A system that maintains a prescribed relationship between the output and the reference input by
comparing them and using the difference as a means of control is called a closed-loop system.
• This type of system is also called feedback control system because here, the output/controlled
variable is fed back for comparison with the input/reference.
• A temperature control system is an example of feedback control system (air conditioner, room
heater, refrigerator etc.)
• Can you think of more examples of feedback systems?
Closed-loop system…
• Feedback control systems are more complex to design and expensive.
• However, they can correct the disturbances automatically without any human intervention and
thus, provides superior performance.

Fig-3: Block diagram of a closed-loop system

Analysis and design objectives
• We analyze a system to find its existing transient response. Then we adjust parameters or design
components to yield our desired transient response. This is our first objective.
• We analyze/calculate a system’s steady-state error and design corrective action to reduce the
steady-state error. This our second objective.
• We analyze a system for its stability and make necessary changes to the system parameters. This is
the third objective.
• There are other design considerations such as hardware selection, finance, robustness (system will
be insensitive to parameter changes) etc.
The design process
Determine a physical
system and Draw a functional block Transform the physical
specifications from the diagram system into a schematic
requirements

Use the schematic to

obtain a detailed block
Analyze to see if Block diagram
diagram, signal-flow
requirements are met reduction
graph or state-space
representation
A case study (antenna position
control system)

Fig-4: System concept

A case study (antenna position
control system)…

Fig-5: Functional block diagram

A case study (antenna position
control system)…

Fig-6: Schematic
A case study (antenna position
control system)…

Fig-7: Detailed layout

A case study (antenna position
control system)…

Fig-8: Response of a position control

system (effect of high and low gain)
More about the design process
• The order shown in the case study of chapter-1 doesn’t match the description and logic. We first
draw a rough sketch from our requirement, then we develop a block diagram, choose components
to achieve the functions of the blocks in the block diagram and finally, draw the detailed layout.
• While going through the design steps, we first make simplified assumptions, such as ignore
inductance in DC motor, assume instant change in voltage of potentiometer with input change,
ignore saturation effect of amplifier and so on. Later on, if these assumptions deviate the designed
system too much from reality, we incorporate them one after one, such as non-linearity and so on.
A case study (continued)…
• After drawing the schematic, we develop a mathematical model using basic laws (Ohm’s law,
KVL, KCL etc. for electrical systems and Newton’s laws for mechanical systems).
• We end up with differential equations of varying order depending on the number of energy storage
elements in our system.
• We always aim for LTI system at first because it allows for easier analysis and better intuition.
Most of the time, these approximations are good enough to get a working system up and running.
• However, modern complex control systems go beyond simple LTI system and we need more
mathematical tools like state-space representations to implement and analyze them.
• We sometimes reduce the block diagram to relate input and output more easily. It is also useful
when we are mainly interested in input and output and not the intermediate signals.
• We then analyze the system to see whether or not it meets our design criteria and repeat if
necessary.
Test signals
Test signals…
Problems
• Exercise-2, 5, 8 and 10
THANK YOU