Control System Design ME155A 1.

Practical Information

Lecture 1 - Introduction to Automatic Control • Lectures Tue, Th 12.30-1.45 2361 Engineering II

• Lecture notes, homeworks, and solutions on Home page
K. J. Åström
• Computer tools Matlab with control system tool box
1. Practical Information about the Course • Office hours: Tuesday 1.45-2.45, Thursday 10.30-11.30
2. Introduction to Automatic Control • Teaching assistant: Niklas Karlsson 2235A Engineering II
3. Example of Control Systems – Office hours: Monday 10.00-11.00, Tuesday 9.00-10.00,
4. Feedback • Midterm: Tentatively Nov 2nd
5. Summary • Final: Dec 8 12.00-3 pm
• Grade: 30% HW, 30% MT and 40% final
Theme: What is control? Why should an ME know about it?
Open and closed loop systems? Feedback and feedforward. • Feedback: astrom@engineering.ucsb.edu, 2324 Eng II
Block diagrams.

Goals of the Course 2. An Introduction to Automatic Control

• Understand why automatic control is useful • The discipline of control
for a mechanical engineer • A brief history
• Recognize the value of • How Control emerged?
integrated control and process design
• Consequences
• Recognize when a process is easy or difficult to control
• Automation levels
• Know key ideas and concepts
• Applications
Dynamics and feedback
• Summary
• Know relevant mathematical theory
• Be able to solve simple control problems
• Recognize difficult problems
• Be aware of computational tools

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 The Discipline of Control Open and Closed Loop Cruise Systems
• Kybernetes, Greek word for navigator, steers-man, related Slope of road
to the Latin gubernator (governor). In "The Republic",
by Plato (428-347 BC) steering a ship was compared to Desired Velocity Velocity
Throttle
steering a community. Aristotle used kybernetike to refer to Controller Car
steering a community.
• A. M. Ampere, "Essai sur la philosophie des science"
(Paris, Bachelier, 1838): The science of government Slope of road
should be called "la cybernétique". Desired Velocity
• N. Wiener 1945 Cybernetics or control and communication Error Throttle Velocity
in the animal and the machine. MIT Press 1948 Σ Controller Car
• H. S. Tsien Engineering Cybernetics, 1954 −
• In the engineering community in the West cybernetics was
gradually replaced by control.

The Idea of Feedback A Brief History

• The roots (before 1940!)
– Early use of feedback in windmills, steam engines, en-
• Compare the actual result with the desired result.
gines, ships, airplanes, process control, telecommuni-
• Take actions based on the difference. cation
• This seemingly simple idea is tremendously powerful. • The field emerges (1940-1945)
• Feedback is a key idea in the discipline of control. – The Second World War
– Spread like wildfire: education, industry, organization
• The second wave (1960-)
– Demanding applications: Space, process industry
– New components: digital computers

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 How to make an Airplane
Lecture by Wilbur Wright 1901:
Men know how to construct airplanes.
Men also know how to build engines.
Inability to balance and steer still confronts
students of the flying problem.
When this one feature has been worked out,
the age of flying will have arrived, for
all other difficulties are of minor importance.
The Wright Brothers figured it out and flew the Kitty Hawk on
December 17 1903!
The Feedback Amplifier
The feedback amplifier was invented by Harold Black in 1927.
The patent procedure took 9 years because engineers did not
believe that it would work. Black got a major IEEE medal in
1957, on this occasion it was said that:
It is no exaggeration to say that
without Black’s invention (of the feedback amplifier),
the present long-distance telephone and television networks
which cover our entire country
and the transoceanic telephone cables
would not exist.
Feedback plays a major role in the Internet and in cellular
communication.

The Feedback Amplifier: Black 1934 The Feedback Amplifier

However, by building an amplifier whose gain is deliberately R2
made, say 40 decibels higher than necessary and then feeding
the output back on the input in such a way as to throw away R1
the excess gain, it had been found possible to effect extraor- −
dinary improvement in constancy of amplification and freedom V +
from non-linearity. V1
V2
Stabilized feedback processes other advantages including
reduced delay and delay distortion, reduced noise disturbance
from the power supply circuits and various other features best Let the raw gain of the amplifier be A, i.e. V2 = − AV , then
appreciated by practical designers of amplifiers. V2 R2 1 dG R1 dA
G= =−  , 
Gain is the “hard-currency” that can be traded for many other V1 R1 1 R2  G AR2 A
1+ 1+
qualities! The operational amplifier. A R1
Notice that the gain is determined by the passive components!
Example A = 105 , R2 / R1 = 100.
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 How the Field Emerged Block Diagrams - A Real Break Through
• Feedback was invented patented and used in a wide
range of fields, often with revolutionary consequences
• It was not realized that very different technical prob-
• Capture the essence
lems were indeed very similar and that they could be ap-
proached with the same methods • Standard “drawing”
• Concepts and theory were lacking • Abstraction
• The pieces fell in place when persons from different • Information hiding
backgrounds were brought together in the war effort • Also some limitations
• The beginning of “systems thinking”
• Why did it take so long?
Block diagrams made it possible to see the similarity between
different types of control systems.

Stop and Think!! Block Diagram of Cruise Control

Try to sketch a block diagram of cruise control for a car. Make External Force
small groups and discuss!
ref Th F Velocity
Σ Cont Eng Σ Body
−

Modeling
The Audience is Thinking ... • Understand how the system works!
• What are the important signals?
• Where is the essential dynamics

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 Consequences
• Education: Courses in automatic control spread like
wildfire and became an important part of the education
of all engineers
• Applications: The ideas were used in a wide range of
fields often with drastic consequences. Lots of technology
transfer.
Engineering Education
• Traditional Division: CE, ME, EE, ..
– Traditional
– Reflects 19th century industry
– Todays problems are different: Systems and materials
• Automatic control - the first systems discipline

• Industrialization: Formation of new companies • Many activities across departments at UCSB

• Organizations: • Why should a mechanical engineer know control?

– IFAC International Federation of Automatic Control – Feedback is ubiquitous (appears everywhere)

– ASME – Feedback gives designers extra freedom
– ACC American Control Council – Codesign of systems and control increasingly important
– Concepts and tools have wide applicability
• Information dissemination : conferences, journals, books

Automatic Control 3. Where Control is Used

• Understanding feedback systems (cybernetics) and • Generation of energy • Industrial processes
dynamics • Transmission of energy • Discrete manufacturing
• Feedback gives designers extra freedom • Communication • Mechatronics
• Use of feedback often revolutionary • Transportation • Instrumentation
• General methods and theories Cars • Consumer electronics
+ Problems from different domains are similar if viewed in Trains • Scientific instruments
the right way Ships • Economy
+ Large application areas Aircrafts • Biology
+ Technology transfer Space-crafts • Medicine
+ Business opportunities
- Abstract (Easy to use your foothold)
• Static and dynamic systems

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 How Control is Used Two Ways to Build an Accelerometer
• Control a given process (add on) Open loop system
d2 x dx
• Codesign process and control m 2 +d + kx = ma
dt dt
Systems are frequently designed based on steady state
Gain g = m/ k r
considerations. Problems often occur in operation.
k 1
Example Rear Wheel Steering. Bandwidth w = =√
m g
Essential to consider control up front in the design
process. Difficult compromise to get
high gain and high band- Closed loop system
New freedom for the designer to solve design conflicts
width ω k = 1!
2
New functionality
Feedback resolves the com-
• Control systems are becoming mission critical promise! Force Balance!
Space vehicles, flight control systems, CD players, Sensitive components:
optical memories, automotive • Spring
• Current measurement

The California Emission Standard The Mercedes A-class

William E. Powers VP of Ford at the 1999 World Congress of
IFAC:

The automobiles of the 1990s are

at least 10 times cleaner
and twice as fuel efficient
as the vehicles of the 1970s.
These advancements were due in large part to
distributed microprocessor-based control systems.
Furthermore the resultant vehicles are
safer, more comfortable and more maneuverable.

A difficult situation rescued by control!

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 Summary 4. Feedback
• A well developed discipline with strong concepts, rich
theory and effective design methods
• Methodology for control system design Recall definition of feedback: Compare the actual result with
– Modeling the desired result. Take actions based on the difference.
– Analysis and simulation • A closer look at properties of feedback systems.
– Design • Comparison of feedback systems and open loop systems.
– Implementation • Some common forms of feedback
– Commissioning and operation
• PID control.
• Control systems are ubiquitous
• Control systems are increasingly mission critical
• Use of feedback has often been revolutionary

Open and Closed Loop Cruise Control Comparison of Open and Closed Loop Control
Open loop: A very simplistic analysis based on static models
d Process Model:
y = k pu + k pd
r Th u y
Contr Eng Σ Body Open Loop Control: u = kc yr
y = k p k c y r + k pd
Closed loop:
d Closed Loop Control: u = kc( yr − y)
r Th u y
Σ Contr Eng Σ Body k p kc 1
y= yr + k pd
− 1 + k p kc 1 + k p kc

This simple analysis gives useful insight but it is important to

also consider dynamics.
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 Feedback and Feedforward
• Feedback
• Closed loop
• Market Driven
• Acts only when there
are deviations
• Robust to model errors
h S h < 1 for some ω
• Risk for instability
Properties of Feedback
+ Reduce effects of process disturbances
• Feedforward
+ Makes system insensitive to process variations
• Open loop
+ Stabilize an unstable system
• Planning
+ Create well defined relations between output and refer-
• Acts before deviations ence
show up
- Risk for instability
• Not robust to model
errors h S h = 1 for all ω
• No risk for instability

On-off and Proportional Control PID Control

A u B u C u • On-off control: A thermostat
• Proportional Control (P): u = ke
Rt
e e e • Proportional and integral control (PI): u = ke + ki 0
e(τ )dτ
Rt de
• PID control: u = ke + ki 0 e(τ )dτ + kd
dt
On-off control (Thermostat):

umax , if e > 0
u=
umin , if e < 0

Proportional control
u = ub + ke

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 The Amazing Property of Integral Action The Amazing Property of Integral Action ...
Consider a PI controller Consider a PI controller
Z t Z t
u = ke + ki e(τ )dτ u = ke + ki e(τ )dτ
0 0

Assume that there is an equilibrium with constant e(t) = e0 and Assume that there is an equilibrium with constant e(t) − e0 and
constant u(t) = u0 . Then we must have e0 = 0. constant u(t) = u0 . Then we must have e0 = 0.
Assume e0 = 0, then
Z t Z t
Can you explain this? u = ke0 + ki e(τ )dτ = ke0 + ki e0 dτ = ke0 + ki e0 t
0 0

The right hand side is different from zero. Hence a contradic-

The Audience is Thinking ... tion unless e0 = 0.
This fact was rediscovered and patented many times in differ-
ent applications!

Derivative Action as Prediction 5. Summary

Replace the error in proportional control with the predicted • What is control?
error • How did the discipline emerge?
de(t)
ep(t) = e(t) + Td • Why is it useful for a Mechanical Engineer?
dt
Prediction by linear extrapolation! • The idea of Block Diagram
e • Feedback and feedforward
• On-off and PID Control (past, present and future)

Next Time
t t + Td Cruise Control - Our first Control Design
More sophisticated controllers predicts using mathematical
model of the process.
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