Control System
Control System
There are two common classes of control systems, with many variations and
combinations: logic or sequential controls, and feedback or linear controls. There is
also fuzzy logic, which attempts to combine some of the design simplicity of logic with
the utility of linear control. Some devices or systems are inherently not controllable.
Contents
1 Overview
2 Logic control
3 On–off control
4 Linear control
o 4.1 Proportional control
4.1.1 Under-damped furnace example
4.1.2 Over-damped furnace example
4.2 PID control
o 4.2.1 Derivative action
o 4.2.2 Integral action
4.3 Other techniques
5 Fuzzy logic
6 Physical implementations
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Overview
The term "control system" may be applied to the essentially manual controls that allow
an operator, for example, to close and open a hydraulic press, perhaps including logic so
that it cannot be moved unless safety guards are in place.
Logic control
Logic control systems for industrial and commercial machinery were historically
implemented at mains voltage using interconnected relays, designed using ladder logic.
Today, most such systems are constructed with programmable logic controllers (PLCs)
or microcontrollers. The notation of ladder logic is still in use as a programming idiom
for PLCs.[1]
Logic controllers may respond to switches, light sensors, pressure switches, etc., and
can cause the machinery to start and stop various operations. Logic systems are used to
sequence mechanical operations in many applications. Examples include elevators,
washing machines and other systems with interrelated stop-go operations.
Logic systems are quite easy to design, and can handle very complex operations. Some
aspects of logic system design make use of Boolean logic.
On–off control
Simple on–off feedback control systems like these are cheap and effective. In some
cases, like the simple compressor example, they may represent a good design choice.
The output from a linear control system into the controlled process may be in the form
of a directly variable signal, such as a valve that may be 0 or 100% open or anywhere in
between. Sometimes this is not feasible and so, after calculating the current required
corrective signal, a linear control system may repeatedly switch an actuator, such as a
pump, motor or heater, fully on and then fully off again, regulating the duty
cycle using pulse-width modulation.
Proportional control
At low gains, only a small corrective action is applied when errors are detected: the
system may be safe and stable, but may be sluggish in response to changing conditions;
errors will remain uncorrected for relatively long periods of time: it is over-damped. If
the proportional gain is increased, such systems become more responsive and errors
are dealt with more quickly. There is an optimal value for the gain setting when the
overall system is said to be critically damped. Increases in loop gain beyond this point
will lead to oscillations in the PV; such a system is under-damped.
In the furnace example, suppose the temperature is increasing towards a set point at
which, say, 50% of the available power will be required for steady-state. At low
temperatures, 100% of available power is applied. When the PV is within, say 10° of the
SP the heat input begins to be reduced by the proportional controller. (Note that this
implies a 20° "proportional band" (PB) from full to no power input, evenly spread
around the setpoint value). At the setpoint the controller will be applying 50% power as
required, but stray stored heat within the heater sub-system and in the walls of the
furnace will keep the measured temperature rising beyond what is required. At 10°
above SP, we reach the top of the proportional band (PB) and no power is applied, but
the temperature may continue to rise even further before beginning to fall back.
Eventually as the PV falls back into the PB, heat is applied again, but now the heater and
the furnace walls are too cool and the temperature falls too low before its fall is
arrested, so that the oscillations continue.
Suppose that the gain of the control system is reduced drastically and it is restarted. As
the temperature approaches, say 30° below SP (60° proportional band or PB now), the
heat input begins to be reduced, the rate of heating of the furnace has time to slow and,
as the heat is still further reduced, it eventually is brought up to set point, just as 50%
power input is reached and the furnace is operating as required. There was some
wasted time while the furnace crept to its final temperature using only 52% then 51%
of available power, but at least no harm was done. By carefully increasing the gain (i.e.
reducing the width of the PB) this over-damped and sluggish behavior can be improved
until the system is critically damped for this SP temperature. Doing this is known as
'tuning' the control system. A well-tuned proportional furnace temperature control
system will usually be more effective than on-off control, but will still respond more
slowly than the furnace could under skillful manual control.
PID control
To resolve these two problems, many feedback control schemes include mathematical
extensions to improve performance. The most common extensions lead to proportional-
integral-derivative control, or PID control (pronounced pee-eye-dee).
Derivative action
The derivative part is concerned with the rate-of-change of the error with time: If the
measured variable approaches the setpoint rapidly, then the actuator is backed off early
to allow it to coast to the required level; conversely if the measured value begins to
move rapidly away from the setpoint, extra effort is applied—in proportion to that
rapidity—to try to maintain it.
Derivative action makes a control system behave much more intelligently. On systems
like the temperature of a furnace, or perhaps the motion-control of a heavy item like a
gun or camera on a moving vehicle, the derivative action of a well-tuned PID controller
can allow it to reach and maintain a setpoint better than most skilled human operators
could.
Integral action
The integral term magnifies the effect of long-term steady-state errors, applying ever-
increasing effort until they reduce to zero. In the example of the furnace above working
at various temperatures, if the heat being applied does not bring the furnace up to
setpoint, for whatever reason, integral action increasingly moves the proportional band
relative to the setpoint until the PV error is reduced to zero and the setpoint is achieved.
Other techniques
It is possible to filter the PV or error signal. Doing so can reduce the response of the
system to undesirable frequencies, to help reduce instability or oscillations. Some
feedback systems will oscillate at just one frequency. By filtering out that frequency,
more "stiff" feedback can be applied, making the system more responsive without
shaking itself apart.
Feedback systems can be combined. In cascade control, one control loop applies control
algorithms to a measured variable against a setpoint, but then provides a varying
setpoint to another control loop rather than affecting process variables directly. If a
system has several different measured variables to be controlled, separate control
systems will be present for each of them.
Control engineering in many applications produces control systems that are more
complex than PID control. Examples of such fields include fly-by-wire aircraft control
systems, chemical plants, and oil refineries. Model predictive control systems are
designed using specialized computer-aided-design software and empirical
mathematical models of the system to be controlled.
Fuzzy logic
The rules of the system are written in natural language and translated into fuzzy logic.
For example, the design for a furnace would start with: "If the temperature is too high,
reduce the fuel to the furnace. If the temperature is too low, increase the fuel to the
furnace."
Measurements from the real world (such as the temperature of a furnace) are converted
to values between 0 and 1 by seeing where they fall on a triangle. Usually the tip of the
triangle is the maximum possible value which translates to "1."
Fuzzy logic, then, modifies Boolean logic to be arithmetical. Usually the "not" operation
is "output = 1 - input," the "and" operation is "output = input.1 multiplied by input.2,"
and "or" is "output = 1 - ((1 - input.1) multiplied by (1 - input.2))". This reduces
to Boolean arithmetic if values are restricted to 0 and 1, instead of allowed to range in
the unit interval [0,1].
The last step is to "defuzzify" an output. Basically, the fuzzy calculations make a value
between zero and one. That number is used to select a value on a line whose slope and
height converts the fuzzy value to a real-world output number. The number then
controls real machinery.
If the triangles are defined correctly and rules are right the result can be a good control
system.
When a robust fuzzy design is reduced into a single, quick calculation, it begins to
resemble a conventional feedback loop solution and it might appear that the fuzzy
design was unnecessary. However, the fuzzy logic paradigm may provide scalability for
large control systems where conventional methods become unwieldy or costly to
derive.
Fuzzy electronics is an electronic technology that uses fuzzy logic instead of the two-
value logic more commonly used in digital electronics.
Physical implementations
Since modern small microprocessors are so cheap (often less than $1 US), it's very
common to implement control systems, including feedback loops, with computers, often
in anembedded system. The feedback controls are simulated by having the computer
make periodic measurements and then calculating from this stream of measurements
(see digital signal processing, sampled data systems).
See also
Control theory
Perceptual control theory
Distributed control system
Programmable logic controller
Programmable automation controller
PID controller
HVAC control system
Droop speed control
Control engineering
Sampled data systems
Building automation
VisSim
EPICS
SCADA
Coefficient diagram method
Education and training of electrical and electronics engineers
Industrial control systems
Process control
Process optimization
Networked control system
Hierarchical control system
Motion control
Cybernetics
Good Regulator
References
Categories:
Control theory
Control engineering
Systems engineering
Systems theory
Automation