Welcome to ME 408

Automatic Controls

Introduction

Dr. Nadeem Khan

(Assist. Prof.)

Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of Engineering & Technology Peshawar (Jalozai Campus)
nkhan004@uetpeshawar.edu.pk
Lectures: Tuesday 10:00 – 11:30 AM (Sect. A & B) and
Wednesday 10:00 – 11:30 PM (Sect. A & B)
Online @ Class Room 202 or 204, Jalozai Campus.

Office Hours: Wednesday 9:30 – 11:30 AM

Thursday 9:00 – 11:00 AM

Contact Policy: You may e-mail me at any time. I regularly check &
respond to my e-mails. Also, I have an open door policy in my office,
if the door is prop-open during my office hours, feel free to stop by.
ME Text:
1) Modern Control Engineering by Katsushiko Ogata
2) Control Systems Engineering, by Nise, Norman S. John Wiley &
Sons.
3) Modern Control System, by Richard C. Dorf
4) Automatic Control, by Francis H. Raven
Optional Text:
1) Automatic Control by J.J. Distofano etal.
Course Description:
• This course provides an introduction to Systems, more specific
linear systems, transfer functions, and Laplace transforms.
• It covers stability and feedback, and provides basic design tools for
specifications of transient response.
• It also briefly covers frequency-domain techniques.

Learning outcomes:
By the end of this course, the students are expected to
 Learn the process of modeling linear time-invariant (LTI) dynamical
systems in dual domains: in the time domain using ordinary
differential equations and in the Laplace domain (s-domain).

 Understand the behavior of LTI systems qualitatively and

quantitatively, both in the transient and steady-state regimes, and
appreciate how it impacts the performance of electro-mechanical
systems.
 Introduce feedback control and understand, using the s-domain
primarily, how feedback impacts transient and steady-state
performance.

 Learn how to design proportional-integral-derivative (PID) feedback

control systems to fulfill the specific system performance
requirements.
 TOPICS TO BE COVERED:
Basic Concepts:
• Basics of Control System
• Open loop & closed-loop control systems
• Block diagram
• Examples of control systems
Dynamic System Modeling:
• Mechanical translational & rotational systems
• Electrical systems
• Electromechanical systems
• Thermal systems
• Fluid Systems
Laplace Transforms and Transfer Function:
• Review of Laplace transform
• Impulse, step, and ramp functions
• Partial fraction expansion
• Concepts of transfer functions
• Block diagram algebra
• Signal flow graphs and Mason gain formula to find transfer function
Time Response of 1st and 2nd Order Systems:
• Time response of the 1st & 2nd order systems (Impulse, step, and
ramp response etc.)
• Time response characteristics (time constant, overshoot, rise time,
settling time, steady state error etc.)
• Relation of system response to location of system Poles & Zeros
Stability of Control System:
• Concept of stability
• Routh Hurwitz stability criterion & its applications
Root Locus Design:
• Concept of Root locus & its construction
• Root locus design
• System stability by pole placement
• Compensator Design (Lead and Lag Compensator)
Introduction to PID Controllers:
• Design of PID Controller (P, PI, and PID Controllers)
Attendance Policy:
You are required to attend all the classes, because class attendance
will significantly help you understand the material and prepare for the
coming exams & quizzes. That's why there is small percentage of
sessional grading for attendance.

Grading Policy: Grading Scale:

Attendance 3% Mini-Proj. --- A 4.0 C+ 2.33

A- 3.67 C 2.0
Quizzes 09% Mid-term 20 %
B+ 3.33 C- 1.67

Homework 08 % Final 60 % 𝑩 3.0 D+ 1.33

B− 2.67 D 1.0
Honor Pledge
"I pledge to support the honor system of UET Peshawar. I will refrain
from any form of academic dishonesty or deception, such as cheating
or plagiarism in taking quizzes, tests, the completion of homework
assignments, as well as attendance.”

Notes:
1) All exams are closed-book and closed-notes or otherwise if online.
No cell phone or other electronic devices should be used.
2) Students are responsible for materials covered and announcements
made in classes, including those in which they are absent.
3) This schedule and policy are tentative and may be modified. So, the
circumstances and events may make it necessary for the instructor to
modify the syllabus during the semester. This may depend, in part, on
the progress, needs, and experiences of the students.
 1. Introduction to Control:
 Control theories commonly used today are Classical Control theory
(also called conventional control theory), Modern Control theory,
as well as Robust Control theory.
 The course will cover & presents comprehensive treatments of the
analysis and design of control systems based on the classical
control theory and modern control theory.
Automatic Control is essential in any field of engineering and science.
Automatic control is an important and integral part of:
• Space-vehicle systems,
• Robotic systems,
• Modern manufacturing systems, and
• Any industrial operations involving control of temperature,
pressure, humidity, flow, etc. (1)

 It is desirable that most engineers and scientists are familiar with

theory and practice of automatic control.
 Brief Review of Historical Developments of Control Theories &
Practices.

The first significant work in automatic control was James Watt’s

centrifugal governor for the speed control of a steam engine in the 18th
century.
Other significant works in the early stages of development of control
theory were:
• In 1922, Minorsky worked on automatic controllers for steering ships
and showed how stability could be determined from the differential
equations describing the system.
• In 1932, Nyquist developed a relatively simple procedure for
determining the stability of closed-loop systems on the basis of
open-loop response to steady-state sinusoidal inputs.
• In 1934, Hazen, who introduced the term Servomechanisms for
position control systems, discussed the design of relay
servomechanisms capable of closely following a changing input.
 During the decade of the 1940s, frequency-response methods
(especially the Bode diagram methods due to Bode) made it possible
for engineers to design linear closed-loop control systems that satisfied
performance requirements.

Many industrial control systems in 1940s and 1950s used PID

controllers to control pressure, temperature, etc. In the early 1940s
Ziegler and Nichols suggested rules for tuning PID controllers, called
Ziegler–Nichols tuning rules. From the end of the 1940s to the 1950s,
the Root-locus method due to Evans was fully developed.

The Frequency-response and Root-locus methods, which are the

core of classical control theory, lead to systems that are stable and
satisfy a set of more or less arbitrary performance requirements. Such
systems are, in general, acceptable but not optimal in any meaningful
sense. Since the late 1950s, the emphasis in control design problems
has been shifted from the design of one of many systems that work to
the design of one optimal system in some meaningful sense.
 As modern plants with many inputs and outputs become more
and more complex, the description of a Modern Control System
requires a large number of equations. Classical control theory, which
deals only with single-input, single-output systems, becomes powerless
for Multiple-input, Multiple-output (MIMO) systems.
Since around 1960, because the availability of digital computers made
possible time-domain analysis of complex systems, modern control
theory, based on time-domain analysis and synthesis using state
variables, has been developed to cope with the increased complexity of
modern plants and the stringent requirements on accuracy, weight, and
cost in military, space, and industrial applications.
During the years from 1960 to 1980, Optimal Control of both
deterministic and stochastic systems, as well as Adaptive and learning
control of complex systems, were fully investigated.
From 1980s to 1990s, developments in modern control theory
were centered around Robust Control and associated topics.
2. Modern Control Theory:

Modern Control Theory is based on time-domain analysis of

differential equation systems. Modern control theory made the
design of control systems simpler because the theory is based on a
model of an actual control system. (2)

o However, the system’s stability is sensitive to the error between the

actual system and its model. This means that when the designed
controller based on a model is applied to the actual system, the
system may not be stable.
o To avoid this situation, we design the control system by first setting
up the range of possible errors and then designing the controller in
such a way that, if the error of the system stays within the assumed
range, the designed control system will stay stable. The design
method based on this principle is called Robust Control Theory. This
theory incorporates both the frequency response approach and the
time-domain approach. The theory is mathematically very complex.
3. Control Systems:

A control system is a device, or set of devices to manage, command,

direct or regulate the behavior of other device(s) or system(s). (3)

o 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.

An automatic sequential control system may trigger a series of

mechanical actuators in the correct sequence to perform a task. (4)

o For example, Automatic Packaging Machine:

Its various electric and pneumatic transducers may fold and glue a
cardboard box, fill it with product and then seal it for dispatch.
4. Systems:
A system is a combination of components that act together & perform a
certain objective. (5)

o A system need not be physical. The concept of the system can be

applied to abstract, dynamic phenomena such as those encountered
in economics. The word system should, therefore, be interpreted to
imply physical, biological, economic, and the like systems.

Models of Systems. A simplified, abstracted constructs used to predict

the behavior of systems of interest. (6)

Environment. All that is external to system.

Input. A variable prescribed by the environment to the system.
Output. Any system variable or interest (e.g. response of system:
variable prescribed by the system to the environment). (7)
Disturbances: A disturbance is a signal that tends to adversely affect
the value of the output of a system. (8)

o If a disturbance is generated within the system, it is called internal,

while an external disturbance is generated outside the system and is
an input.
Plants: A plant may be a piece of equipment, perhaps just a set of
machine parts functioning together, the purpose of which is to perform
a particular operation. (9)

o We shall call any physical object to be controlled (such as a

mechanical device, a heating furnace, a chemical reactor, or a
spacecraft) a plant.

5. Controlled Variable & Control Signal or Manipulated Variable:

The controlled variable is the quantity or condition that is measured
and controlled. The control signal or manipulated variable is the
quantity or condition that is varied by the controller so as to affect (10)
the value of the controlled variable.
Normally, the controlled variable is the output of the system. (10)

Processes. We shall call any operation to be controlled is a process.

Examples are chemical, economic, and biological processes. (11)

Transducer. A device which converts one form of energy into another.

(12)
EXAMPLES OF CONTROL SYSTEMS:
1. Servomechanism. A servomechanism, sometimes shortened to
Servo, is an automatic device that uses error-sensing negative feedback
to correct the performance of a mechanism and is defined by its
function. The output (or the controlled variable) usually is mechanical
position, or one of its derivatives velocity or acceleration. (13)
o Goal: to force the output to follow a varying input.

Servomechanism
Example. Automobile
Power-steering
Apparatus.
Other Examples of Servomechanism Usage:
• Automatic machine tools
• Satellite tracking antennas
• Remote control airplanes
• Anti-aircraft gun control system
• Automatic navigation systems in boats and planes

2. Regulator: A regulator is a feedback control system in which the

reference input or the desired output is either constant or slowing
varying with time. (14)