Introduction

• Control system is that means by which any quantity of interest in a machine, mechanism or
any other equipment is maintained or altered in accordance with a desired manner.

• One of the most commonly asked questions by a novice on a control system is: What is a
control system? To answer the question, we can say that in our daily lives there are numerous
"objectives" that need to be accomplished. For instance, in the domestic domain, we need to
regulate the temperature and humidity of homes and buildings for comfortable living.

• For transportation, we need to control the automobile and airplane to go from one point to
another accurately and safely. Industrially, manufacturing processes contain numerous
objectives for products that will satisfy the precision and cost effectiveness requirements.

• The means of achieving these "objectives" usually involve the use of control systems that
implement certain control strategies.

• In recent years, control systems have assumed an increasingly important role in the
development and advancement of modern civilization and technology. Practically every aspect
of our day-to-day activities is affected by some type of control system.
 Basic Components of a Control System
The basic ingredients of a control system can be described by:
1. Objectives of control.
2. Control-system components.
3. Results or outputs.
The basic relationship among these three components is illustrated in Fig. 1 -1. In more technical
terms, the objectives can be identified with inputs, or actuating signals, u, and the results are
also called outputs, or controlled variables, y. In general, the objective of the control system is
to control the outputs in some prescribed manner by the inputs through the elements of the
control system.

Figure 1-1
 Example
Steering Control of an Automobile

• As a simple example of the control system, as shown in Fig. 1-1, consider the steering control of
an automobile.
• The direction of the two front wheels can be regarded as the controlled variable, or the output, y;
the direction of the steering wheel is the actuating signal, or the input, u.
• The control system, or process in this case, is composed of the steering mechanism and the
dynamics of the entire automobile. However, if the objective is to control the speed of the
automobile, then the amount of pressure exerted on the accelerator is the actuating signal, and the
vehicle speed is the controlled variable.
• As a whole, we can regard the simplified automobile control system as one with two inputs
(steering and accelerator) and two outputs (heading and speed). In this case, the two controls and
two outputs are independent of each other, but there are systems for which the controls are
coupled. Systems with more than one input and one output are called multivariable systems.
 Example
Idle-Speed Control of an Automobile
The objective of such a control system is to
maintain the engine idle speed at a relatively low
value (for fuel economy) regardless of the applied
engine loads (e.g., transmission, power steering,
air conditioning). Without the idle-speed control,
any sudden engine-load application would cause a
drop in engine speed that might cause the engine
to stall. Thus the main objectives of the idle-speed
control system are (1) to eliminate or minimize
the speed droop when engine loading is applied
and (2) to maintain the engine idle speed at a
desired value. Fig. 1-2 shows the block diagram
of the idle-speed control system from the
standpoint of inputs-system-outputs. In this case,
the throttle angle α and the load torque TL (due to
the application of air conditioning, power
steering, transmission, or power brakes, etc.) are
the inputs, and the engine speed is the output. The
engine is the controlled process of the system. Figure 1-2
 Example
Sun-Tracking Control of Solar Collectors
In most of these systems, the need for high efficiencies dictates the use of devices for sun
tracking. Fig. 1-3 shows a solar collector field. Fig. 1-4 shows a conceptual method of efficient
water extraction using solar power. During the hours of daylight, the solar collector would
produce electricity to pump water from the underground water table to a reservoir (perhaps on a
nearby mountain or hill), and in the early morning hours, the water would be released into the
irrigation system.

Figure 1-3 Figure 1-4

One of the most important features of the solar collector is that the collector dish must track the sun
accurately. Therefore, the movement of the collector dish must be controlled by sophisticated
control systems. The block diagram of Fig. 1-5 describes the general philosophy of the sun-tracking
system together with some of the most important components. The controller ensures that the
tracking collector is pointed toward the sun in the morning and sends a "start track" command. The
controller constantly calculates the sun's rate for the two axes (azimuth and elevation) of control
during the day. The controller uses the sun rate and sun sensor information as inputs to generate
proper motor commands to slew the collector.

Figure 1-5
 Types of Control System
• Open-Loop Control Systems (Non feedback Systems)
The idle-speed control system illustrated in Fig. 1-2, shown previously, is rather unsophisticated and is
called an open-loop control system. It is not difficult to see that the system as shown would not
satisfactorily fulfill critical performance requirements. For instance, if the throttle angle α is set at a
certain initial value that corresponds to a certain engine speed, then when a load torque TL is applied,
there is no way to prevent a drop in the engine speed. The only way to make the system work is to have
a means of adjusting α in response to a change in the load torque in order to maintain 𝞈 at the desired
level. The conventional electric washing machine is another example of an open-loop control system
because, typically, the amount of machine wash time is entirely determined by the judgment and
estimation of the human operator.
The elements of an open-loop control system can usually be divided into two parts: the controller and
the controlled process, as shown by the block diagram of Fig. 1 -6. An input signal, or command, r, is
applied to the controller, whose output acts as the actuating signal u; the actuating signal then controls
the controlled process so that the controlled variable y will perform according to some prescribed
standards. In simple cases, the controller can bean amplifier, a mechanical linkage, a filter, or other
control elements, the controller can be a computer such as a microprocessor.

Figure 1-6
• Closed-Loop Control Systems (Feedback Control Systems)
To obtain more accurate control, the controlled signal y should be fed back and compared with the
reference input, and an actuating signal proportional to the difference of the input and the output must
be sent through the system to correct the error. A system with one or more feedback paths such as that
just described is called a closed-loop system.
A closed-loop idle-speed control system is shown in Fig. 1-7. The reference input 𝞈𝑟sets the desired
idling speed. The engine speed at idle should agree with the reference value 𝞈𝑟 and any difference
such as the load torque TL is sensed by the speed transducer and the error detector. The controller will
operate on the difference and provide a signal to adjust the throttle angle α to correct the error.

Figure 1-7
Fig. 1-8 compares the typical performances of open loop and closed-loop idle-speed control systems.
In Fig. l-8(a), the idle speed of the open loop system will drop and settle at a lower value after a load
torque is applied. In Fig. 1-8 (b), the idle speed of the closed-loop system is shown to recover quickly
to the preset value after the application of TL. The objective of the idle-speed control system
illustrated, also known as a regulator system, is to maintain the system output at a prescribed level.

Figure 1-8
WHAT IS FEEDBACK, AND WHAT ARE ITS EFFECTS?
• In general, we can state that whenever a closed sequence of cause-and-effect relationships exists among
the variables of a system, feedback is said to exist. This viewpoint will inevitably admit feedback in a large
number of systems that ordinarily would be identified as non feedback systems.
• Let us consider the simple feedback system configuration shown in Fig. 1-9, where r is the input signal; y,
the output signal; e, the error; and b, the feedback signal. The parameters G and H may be considered as
constant gains. By simple algebraic manipulations, it is simple to show that the input-output relation of the
system is

• Effect of Feedback on Overall Gain

As seen from Eq. (1-1), feedback affects the gain G of a non feedback system by a factor of 1 + GH. The
system of Fig. 1-9 is said to have negative feedback, because a minus sign is assigned to the feedback
signal. The quantity GH may itself include a minus sign, so the general effect of feedback is that it may
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 be greater than 1 in one frequency range but less than 1 in another. Therefore,
feedback could increase the gain of system in one frequency range but decrease it in another.
Figure 1-9

Figure 1-10
• Effect of Feedback on Stability
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, we can again refer to the expression in 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 may state that feedback can cause a system that is originally stable to
become unstable. Certainly, feedback is a double-edged sword; when it is improperly used, it can
be harmful. It should be pointed out, however, that we are only dealing with the static case here,
and, in general, GH = -1 is not the only condition for instability.
It can be demonstrated that one of the advantages of incorporating feedback is that it can stabilize
an unstable system. Let us assume that the feedback system in Fig. 1-9 is unstable because GH = 1.
If we introduce another feedback loop through a negative feedback gain of F, as shown in Fig. 1-
10, the input-output relation of the overall system is

It is apparent that although the properties of G and H are such that the inner-loop feedback system
is unstable, because GH = - 1 , the overall system can be stable by properly selecting the outer-loop
feedback gain F. In practice, GH is a function of frequency, and the stability condition of the
closed-loop system depends on the magnitude and phase of GH. The bottom line is that feedback
can improve stability or be harmful to stability if it is not properly applied.
• Effect on Sensitivity
In general, a good control system should be very insensitive to parameter variations but sensitive to
the input commands. We shall investigate what effect feedback has on sensitivity to parameter
variations. Referring to the system in Fig. 1-9, we consider G to be a gain parameter that may vary.
The sensitivity of the gain of the overall system M to the variation in G is defined as

where dM denotes the incremental change in M due to the incremental change in G, or dG. By using
Eq. (1-1), the sensitivity function is written

This relation 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 remains stable. It is apparent that,
in an open-loop system, the gain of the system will respond in a one-to-one fashion to the variation in
G (i.e., SQ = 1). Again, in practice, GH is a function of frequency; the magnitude of 1- GH may be
less than unity over some frequency ranges, so feedback could be harmful to the sensitivity to
parameter variations in certain cases. In general, the sensitivity of the system gain of a feedback
system to parameter variations depends on where the parameter is located. The reader can derive the
sensitivity of the system in Fig. 1 -9 due to the variation of H.
• Effect of Feedback on External Disturbance or Noise
The effect of feedback on noise and disturbance depends greatly on where these extraneous signals
occur in the system. No general conclusions can be reached, but in many situations, feedback can
reduce the effect of noise and disturbance on system performance. Let us refer to the system shown
in Fig. 1-11, in which r-denotes the command

Figure 1-11
signal and n is the noise signal. In the absence of feedback, that is, H= 0, the output)' due to n acting
alone is
With the presence of feedback, the system output due to n acting alone is

Comparing Eq. (1-6) with Eq. (1-5) shows that the noise component in the output of Eq. (1-6) is
reduced by the factor 1 + G1G2 H if the latter is greater than unity and the system is kept stable.
TYPES OF FEEDBACK CONTROL SYSTEMS
Feedback control systems may be classified in a number of ways, depending upon the purpose of
the classification. For instance, according to the method of analysis and design, control systems
are classified as
• linear or nonlinear systems.
• time-varying or time-invariant systems
• continuous-data or discrete-data systems.
• modulated or unmodulated systems.
Control systems are often classified according to the main purpose of the system. For instance,
• position-control system
• velocity-control system

• Linear versus Nonlinear Control Systems

When the magnitudes of signals in a control system are limited to ranges in which system
components exhibit linear characteristics (i.e., the principle of superposition and homogeneity
applies), the system is essentially linear.
Saturation, backlash or dead play between coupled gear members, nonlinear spring characteristics,
nonlinear friction force or torque between moving members, and so on.
• Time-Invariant versus Time-Varying Systems
• When the parameters of a control system are stationary with respect to time during the operation
of the system, the system is called a time-invariant system.

• In practice, most physical systems contain elements that drift or vary with time. For example, the
winding resistance of an electric motor will vary when the motor is first being excited and its
temperature is rising.

• Another example of a time-varying system is a guided-missile control system in which the mass
of the missile decreases as the fuel on board is being consumed during flight. Although a time-
varying system without nonlinearity is still a linear system, the analysis and design of this class
of systems are usually much more complex than that of the linear time-invariant systems.
• Continuous-Data Control Systems
• A continuous-data system is one in which the signals at various parts of the system are all
functions of the continuous time variable t. The signals in continuous-data systems may be
further classified as ac or dc.
• When one refers to an ac control system, it usually means that the signals in the system are
modulated by some form of modulation scheme.
• A dc control system, on the other hand, simply implies that the signals are unmodulated, but
they are still ac signals according to the conventional definition.
The schematic diagram of a closed loop dc control system is shown in Fig. 1-12. Typical waveforms of
the signals in response to a step-function input are shown in the figure. Typical components of a dc
control system are potentiometers, dc amplifiers, dc motors, dc tachometers, and so on.
In this case, the signals in the system are modulated; that is, the information is transmitted by an ac carrier
signal. Notice that the output controlled variable still behaves similarly to that of the dc system. In this case,
the modulated signals are demodulated by the low-pass characteristics of the ac motor. Ac control systems are
used extensively in aircraft and missile control systems in which noise and disturbance often create problems.
Typical components of an ac control system are synchros, ac amplifiers, ac motors, gyroscopes,
accelerometers, and so on.
• Discrete-Data Control Systems
Discrete-data control systems differ from the continuous-data systems in that the signals at one or
more points of the system are in the form of either a pulse train or a digital code. Usually, discrete-data
control systems are subdivided into sampled-data and digital control systems. Sampled-data control
systems refer to a more general class of discrete-data systems in which the signals are in the form of
pulse data. A digital control system refers to the use of a digital computer or controller in the system so
that the signals are digitally coded, such as in binary code.

Figure 1-14 illustrates how a typical sampled-data system operates. A continuous-data input signal r(t.)
is applied to the system. The error signal e(t) is sampled by a sampling device, the sampler, and the
output of the sampler is a sequence of pulses. The sampling rate of the sampler may or may not be
uniform. There are many advantages to incorporating sampling into a control system. One important
advantage is that expensive equipment used in the system may be time-shared among several control
channels. Another advantage is that pulse data are usually less susceptible to noise.
Because digital computers provide many advantages in size and flexibility, computer control has
become increasingly popular in recent years. Many airborne systems contain digital controllers that
can pack thousands of discrete elements into a space no larger than the size of this book. Figure 1-
15 shows the basic elements of a digital autopilot for guided missile control.