The Control System Designer tool aids in precisely modeling, analyzing, and designing control systems with compensators. It allows the engineer to simulate the system's step response under different configurations, plot root locus diagrams, and interactively adjust system parameters to meet performance criteria such as settling time and overshoot. For this particular PD compensator design, the tool was used to verify system responses and adjust variables like gain to achieve the desired ξ and settling time .

Using Matlab for plotting root locus offers advantages like visualization of how the closed-loop poles change with varying system parameters, providing insights into stability and transient response behavior. It allows for interactive adjustments and immediate feedback on system dynamics, facilitating precise tuning of gains and compensator parameters. Matlab also efficiently computes system responses, and its graphical capabilities assist in aligning system design with performance criteria, as employed in designing the PD compensator for specified overshoot and settling time adjustments .

Transitioning an uncompensated system to a compensated one involves several calculations: determining the desired damping ratio for overshoot, calculating desired natural frequency for settling time, identifying dominant poles, computing required angle deficits, and precisely placing zeros and poles of the compensator. The PD compensator then adjusts these to align the root locus with design goals. The initial uncompensated settings had a gain to achieve desired damping but required compensating by locating zeros at zc1 = -26 and zc2 = -24.57 to meet performance specifications .

The damping ratio (ξ) is directly related to the percentage overshoot of a control system. A specific overshoot percentage can be achieved by calculating ξ from the relation between the overshoot and damping ratio. In this context, the desired overshoot of 20% corresponds to a damping ratio ξ of 0.456. This value is crucial for plotting the root locus and determining the gain that ensures the system operates with the specified overshoot .

Designing a PD compensator involves first calculating the desired damping ratio and natural frequency based on system performance criteria, like overshoot and settling time. The compensator is designed by placing zeros and poles to modify the root locus such that it passes through desirable dominant poles. This includes finding a gain that aligns with the desired damping ratio, and calculating angle deficits to place the zeros effectively. The final PD design requires careful adjustment to bring both damping ratio and natural frequency to their calculated values, as demonstrated by correct zeropole placements .

The location of a compensating zero in a PD compensator is determined by calculating the angle deficiency at the desired closed-loop pole location. This angle deficiency is the additional angle needed to satisfy the angle condition for the root locus, ensuring the closed-loop poles are located at the desired positions. In this scenario, after calculating a total angle contribution, an angle deficiency (Φ) of 75.59° was found, leading to the placement of compensating zeros at specific locations such as zc1 = -26 .

A PD compensator adds a zero to the open-loop transfer function, which increases the damping of the system, thereby reducing the overshoot. Additionally, it can be designed to increase the system's bandwidth, which consequently reduces the settling time. In the given system, the goal was to decrease the settling time by a factor of 4 while maintaining a 20% overshoot, which was achieved by designing the compensator to pass through specific dominant poles that ensured these specifications .

Finding the dominant poles in a root locus is essential because these poles dictate the transient response characteristics of the control system, such as settling time and overshoot. The dominant poles are used to adjust the system's dynamics to meet design specifications by ensuring they lie at desired locations in the s-plane through appropriate compensation or gain adjustments. In this design, the dominant poles were calculated as -17.62 + j34.39, which helped guide the design of the compensator to achieve desired performance metrics .

Choosing a gain from the root locus involves analyzing its effect on system stability and transient response characteristics like overshoot, damping ratio, and settling time. The gain selected should ensure that the poles are positioned to meet these performance criteria while maintaining the system's stability. In this case, the gain was determined by observing the desired damping ratio (ξ = 0.456) and using the root locus to set K = 5776 for the uncompensated system, allowing the transient response to meet the 20% overshoot requirement without compromising stability .

The desired settling time is determined by altering the system's natural frequency, which can be derived from the desired settling time equation and the damping ratio. Settling time relates to how quickly the system reaches and maintains within a particular percentage of its final value. In this system, the desired settling time was reduced to 0.227 seconds by calculating a new natural frequency (ωn) based on 4 / (desired damping ratio × desired settling time) which yielded 38.64 rad/s .