Control Theory and Applications (MCL212)

7/25/2016 1
 Control Theory and Applications (MCL212)
Teacher:
Prof. J.K. Dutt (Chamber: II-352, Telephone: 6334 internal)

Class days and times:

Mondays: From 9:30AM to 10:50 AM
Thursdays: From 9:30 AM to 10:50 AM

Tutorials: We shall fix a timing.

Tentative Distribution of Marks:

Minor-I: 15 Else Minor: 20

Minor-II: 15 Tests and assignments: 40
Total 100 marks Tests: 35 Major: 40
Major: 35
If there are two minors If there is one Minor

7/25/2016 2
Control Theory and Applications:
The Syllabus
Introduction; Fourier and Laplace transforms; Mathematical modelling of simple
physical systems; Transfer function; Block diagrams; Signal flow graph; Transient
response analysis using Laplace transform; Frequency response; Design/performance
specifications in time and frequency domain; Steady state error and error constants;
Proportional, integral, derivative, PD and PID control; Sensors and actuators for
temperature, pressure, flow and motion control systems; Realization of standard
controllers using hydraulic, pneumatic, electronic, electro-hydraulic and electro-
pneumatic systems; Stability; Routh’s criterion; Nyquist stability criterion, Bode
plots; Control system design using Root Locus and Frequency response; Lead and lag
compensation; Gain margin, Phase margin; Introduction to Modern control: State
space representation; Control with state feedback; Review of applications of control
in: Machine tools, Aerospace, Boiler, Engine Governing, Active vibration control.
7/25/2016 3
Textbooks:
1) Control Systems, Principles and Design by M. Gopal, Tata Mc.Graw Hill
2) Modern Control Engineering by K. Ogata, PHI.

7/25/2016 4
What is meant by a Control System?

A control system is that means by which any quantity of interest is kept steady or altered in a desired manner.

This means that any work should be done such that there is a desired effect of that work. A control system is put in
place to ensure that the desired target or effect is achieved. Therefore, doing an effective work is not possible without
a control system. You may hear many words like the ‘Diet Control’, ‘Weight Control’, ‘Financial Control, ‘Speed
Control’, ‘Level Control’, ‘Temperature Control’, ‘Vibration Control’ and the like.

This means that the work must be controlled by keeping attention on its desired performance.
This can be done in two ways,
1) The operator knows perfectly, or is very sure about how much work will generate how much result or output, and
does not need to examine the output continuously, whether it is same as what is desired. This type of control
system is called the ‘Open Loop’ control system. This is prone to some problems, like a) the operator should be
very much sure about the operation and its output, which may take a long time for educating the operator, b) the
operating environment known to the operator should not change much, else the control will be ineffective to
deliver the desired output.
2) The operator keeps on examining continuously if the output in accordance with the desired one and adjusts the
operation accordingly to ensure the desired output of the system. This is called the ‘Closed Loop’ control system.
7/25/2016 5
2) The operator keeps on examining continuously if the output is in accordance with the desired one and adjusts the
operation accordingly to ensure the desired output of the system. This is called the ‘Closed Loop’ control system.

3) This is also called the ‘Feedback Control System’, since the output is continuously fed back for the purpose of
checking its acceptability with respect to the desired output, or effectively the ‘Error’ between the desired and the
obtained output for the purpose of adjusting the operation such that the error is minimised, or made zero in the ideal
situation.

There is, however, one advantage of the ‘Open Loop’ control system, in the way that it can be applied very fast, and
does not need examining the action for its desired result.

7/25/2016 6
Let us see some examples.

Example-1
I shall place two situations, which may be quite common for many of you.

Situation-1
Say, you plan to rise at 6 O’ clock every morning, during the week days and set the alarm in your clock or watch and
put it at a pre-decided place, which you know very well, and will be able to reach even by closing your eyes.
Normally, when the clock or watch rings the alarm in the morning, your sleep gets badly disturbed, and so, you
stretch out your hand without opening your eyes to stop the alarm, and rise, say after 10 minutes. This happens
every morning.

Situation-2
Let’s say that there comes a friend of yours and plays with your watch and puts it nearby at a place, which your
hand cannot reach without opening your eyes. Next morning, when the alarm rings, you first stretch your eyes,
grope around, however, when you do not get, then you are forced to open your eyes to look for the clock or watch
and stop the alarm.

The first (Situation-1) is an example of open loop control action and is fast, the next (Situation-2) is an
example of a closed loop control action and is accurate, though a little slower.

7/25/2016 7
Example-2
This is about the manual speed control of a car, that is running on a uniform level road. Suppose the driver has to
maintain a constant speed. Therefore, the driver fixes a position of the accelerator and keeps the accelerator paddle at
the same position and does not look at the speedometer. This may do. The following action is shown by a block
diagram, as shown below.

Input Accelerator Paddle, Engine Output (Controlled variable)

Force linkage, fuel flow Speed

Figure-1: Block Diagram

Suppose the driver is supposed to drive along an undulating path and still maintain a constant speed. The constant
position of the accelerator is not suitable. Since the undulations change the situations always, the driver will be more
comfortable to see the odometer and adjust the input force to ensure the output speed. This is shown by the diagram
in the next slide.

7/25/2016 8
 Accelerator Speed
Force
Desired Driver’s eyes pedal and fuel
on Leg Engine
Speed and brain injection
muscles
system

Feedback of speed from odometer

Figure-2: Block Diagram

In the above diagram, the driver gets the feedback of the speed by referring to the odometer and keeps adjusting the force on
leg muscles to keep the speed as close to the desired speed as possible. The better the driver does this job, the better is the
driving skill. The manual control is slow and its accuracy depends on the ability of the operator.

7/25/2016 9
 Let us draw the block diagram again and categorise them as shown below.

Summing Junction
and Controller Actuator Plant-1 Plant-2 Output / controlled
Reference variable

Accelerator Speed
Force
Desired Driver’s eyes pedal and fuel
on Leg Engine
Speed and brain injection
muscles
system

Feedback of speed from odometer

Figure-3: The manual Control System

7/25/2016 10
1. Any control system may be expressed as a “Block Diagram” as shown below.
2. The diagram has the fundamental actions in blocks.
3. The blocks contain processing functions to process the signals flowing through them to generate the outputs from
the inputs. The physical nature of the inputs and outputs may also be written on the input and output lines. The
processing function is called “Transfer Function”, which gives the rule to get the output from a block from the signal
entering the block.
4. This is one of the very convenient ways to express the control action.
Block Diagram

Summing Output
Reference Controller Actuator Plant
Junction

Feedback
Feedback of speed from odometer
Figure-4: The Block Diagram for Manual Control System

7/25/2016 11
The reference is in general a function of time, a special case of which is the case when the reference remains constant.
When the reference is constant, the control problem is called a “Regulator Problem”, e.g. the situations in which a
constant speed or a constant temperature to be maintained. When the reference changes or varies with time, the control
problem is called a “Tracking Problem” e.g. the control system necessary for a robot arm to trace a pre-defined path.

Error Output
Reference Controller Actuator Plant

Feedback

Figure 5: The conventional Block Diagram

Conventionally the block diagram is drawn as above, where the “Summing Junction is shown by a circle. This has
sectors. The signal entering in a sector is added to the other if there is no negative sign, and the signal is subtracted
from the others if the sector contains a negative sign, as in the example shown. Here the feedback signal is
subtracted from the reference and the “Error” signal is transmitted forward to the “Controller” block. In this case
the system has a negative “Feedback”, which is very common. A “Feedback Control System” normally means a
Negative Feedback. There may be systems with “Positive Feedback” also.
7/25/2016 12
Manual control is slow and may be dependent on human ability and attention, which may be tiresome, inaccurate
sometimes and may not be possible for a very long time.

Therefore, the automatic control systems are used to have a system, which is fast, more accurate and reliable. The Block
diagram is given again for convenience.

7/25/2016 13
The earliest significant work is by James Watt, who developed the mechanical speed control device for controlling the
speed of a steam engine in the eighteenth century. The schematic arrangement is shown below.

How does it work?

The purpose is to admit a constant quantity of the
fuel to the engine at the desired speed, if the speed
falls than the desired speed the fuel flow should
increase to increase the speed of engine and the fuel
flow should decrease if the engine speed increases
than the desired speed.
This needs the position control of the control valve,
which is operated by the piston of the power
cylinder, the direction of movement of which is
hydraulically controlled by the pilot valve.
The position of the pilot valve is determined by the
position of the bell crank, or by the position of the
fly-ball governor, the angle of which is proportional
to the spin speed of the governor.

7/25/2016 14
How does it work?
The pilot valve is adjusted so that at the desired speed both the ports of the power cylinder are closed by the
piston of the pilot cylinder.
When the speed falls from the desired speed of the engine, due to increase in load, the speed of the fly balls falls.
This pushes down the pilot valve and opens the lower port of the power cylinder and admits the high pressure oil
to apply hydraulic force on the power piston upward. This causes more fuel flow and the speed of the engine
increase till the desired speed, as beyond that, the upper port of the power cylinder opens and the piston is pushed
down to decrease the fuel flow.
The working principle is expressed by the block diagram below.

Reference Input: The adjustment of the pilot piston

Error detector: The pilot piston
Sensor: The flyball system, which adjusts the pilot valve
Actuator: Power Cylinder, which operates the fuel valve
Plant: The engine, which gives out the output
Output: The engine speed

It is a regulator problem

7/25/2016 15
A Simple level control system with a float
In this system, the initial level is adjusted by choosing
the length of the pin and the height of the float.

If the float falls below the level, the more portion of the
pipe is opened and the input is increased to match the
output.

Similarly, if the level increases than the intended one, the

pipe is closed more to reduce the input flow rate.

A similar system is placed in your toilet flush tank,

where the tank gets filled automatically to the desired
level and the input valve does not need closing every
time the tank becomes empty.

It is a regulator problem

Try to draw a block diagram

of this simple control system
and identify the parts.
The arrangement
7/25/2016 16
Let us see an example of an electromechanical system. This is a servo-control system to control the position of a shaft
with respect to the other.

Draw a block diagram for the system.

Borrowed from K. Ogata,

Modern Control Engineering,
5th Edition, Prentice Hall

Explanation
Purpose is to orient the output shaft (attached to the load) at the same angle of the input shaft, which is the reference shaft. The word ‘Servo’ is
synonymous to kinematic behaviour of a system. Servo control means control of kinematic quantities, position, velocity, acceleration etc.
The two similar potentiometers are the sensors. The connection facilitates the measurement of error in positions.
The Amplifier amplifies the error in voltage. The motor gets the information of voltage and generates torque as the output. The gear train modifies the
speed and torque and gives the angular position of the load. As the angles equalize, the error voltage becomes zero and the motor stops.

03/02/2021 17
See the example of a thickness control system of
sheets in a rolling mill. The diagram is shown.

• The thickness gauge is the sensor, which sends a

voltage signal of the instantaneous thickness of the
sheet.

• The reference thickness is expressed by a reference

voltage. The error detector detects the difference of
these two signals and the amplifier amplifies the
voltage.

• This moves the servo valve appropriately.

• The servo valve directs the hydraulic pressure

appropriately to move the power piston to press the
rolls or to relax the them to decrease or increase
the thickness of the plate.
Draw a block diagram for the system.

7/25/2016 18
 Manual control is slow and may be dependent on human ability and attention. Therefore, the automatic control
systems are used to have a system, which is fast, more accurate and reliable. Shown below is a level control system.
Figure 6 (a) shows the system and 6(b) shows the solenoid valve. Suppose we want to maintain the level of water in
a tank between two close levels, say h and h± ε, where ε is << h, in order to ensure supply at the output at a head h.
To make the process automatic, let us set the float to actuate the solenoid valve on the input line as the level in the
tank exceeds h, to stop the input flow of water, and fill the tank soon after the level falls below h. The quantity ε is
set by the characteristics of the solenoid valve, i.e., by the smallest movement of the plunger to actuate the valve.
The cross section of the valve is shown in figure (b). Thus, the valve is actuated by the location of the float
repeatedly between ON and OFF positions and keeps the level almost constant without human intervention. The
adjacent diagram shows the slender deviation of the head about h. A similar system exists in the Vibration
Instrumentation Laboratory in the Department.

Borrowed from
K. Ogata,
Modern Control
Engineering, 5th
Edition, Prentice
Hall

Figure-6: Fluid Level Control System with a solenoid valve

7/25/2016 19
What is there inside the blocks of the ‘Block Diagram’?

The block gives the rule in the form of an algebraic or a differential or an integral or an integro-differential expression
to process the time varying input to the block to obtain the time varying output from the block. This rule is called the
Transfer Function.

We shall consider all these rules linear in this course, as, we shall study Linear Control Theory. Again, in general these
transfer functions are more often than not expressed as a ratio of Laplace Transform of the output to the Laplace
Transform of the Input.

We shall begin the next class with an Introduction to Fourier and Laplace Transform of Functions.

Input to the Block (t) Output from the Block (t)

Algebraic
Differential/Integral or Integro-Differential function

Block Diagram

7/25/2016 20
Tuturial Sheet - 1

Problem-4
Describe a flyball governor mechanism to
control the speed of a steam turbine.

Problem-5
Now-a-days cruise control in cars is a common
facility. What does it mean? Can you construct a
block diagram to explain the procedure of cruise
control of a car?

Problem-6
Give an example of a Multiple-Input-Multiple-
Output (MIMO) control system. Draw the block
diagram of a MIMO control system.

7/25/2016 21