Department of Mechanical Aerospace and Materials Engineering

University of Windsor
• Engineers create products that help people. Our quality of life is sustained and
enhanced through engineering.
• To accomplish this, engineers strive to understand, model, and control the materials and
forces of nature for the benefit of humankind.
• A key area of engineering that reaches across many technical areas is the multidisciplinary
field of control system engineering.

• Control engineers are concerned with understanding and controlling segments of their
environment, often called systems or process, which are interconnections of elements and
devices for a desired purpose.
 Control Engineering

• Control engineering deals with the design (and implementation)

of control systems using linear, time-invariant mathematical models representing
actual physical nonlinear, time-varying systems with parameter uncertainties in the
presence of external disturbances.

• A sensor is a device that provides a measurement of a desired external signal.

• An actuator is a device employed by the control system to alter or
adjust the environment.
 History of control systems
1788 Watt’s Flyball Governor:
The first significant work in automatic control was James Watt’s governor for speed
control of a steam engine

1922 Minkorsky:
Automatic controllers for steering ships and showed how satability could be determined
from differential equations describing the system

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 History of control systems

1932 Nyquist:
Simple procedure for determining the stability of closed-loop systems on the basis of
open-loop response to steady state sinusoidal inputs

1934 Hazen:
Introduced the term “Servomechanism” for position control systems, discussed the design
of relay servomechanisms capable of closely following a changing input

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 During 1940s:
Frequency-response methods developed to design linear closed-
loop control systems

From the end of 1940s to early 1950s:

Root-Locus method was developed

Our focus:
Classical control through methods like Frequency Response and
Root Locus
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 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 deals with Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) systems while
Modern Control Theory is for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output(MIMO) systems

Since 1960, availability of digital computers made possible time-domain analysis of

complex systems

Modern Control Theory, based on time-domain analysis and synthesis using State Space
variables, develop to cope with the increased complexity of modern plants

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 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 1980 to present, developments in modern control theory centered around Robust
Control, Control, and associated topics.

Now that digital computers have become cheaper and more compact, they are used as
integral parts of control systems.

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Selected Historical Developments of
Control Systems (1 of 2)

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Selected Historical Developments of
Control Systems (2 of 2)

Copyright © 2022 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

 Controlled Variable and Manipulated Variable.
The controlled variable is the quantity or condition that is measured and
controlled.
The manipulated variable is the quantity or condition that is varied by the
controller so as to affect the value of the controlled variable. Normally, the
controlled variable is the output of the system

Control, means measuring the value of the controlled variable of the system and
applying the manipulated variable to the system to correct or limit deviation of
the measured value from the desired value.

Note 1: An Introduction to Control Systems 11

 Plants. A plant aybe a piece of equipment, perhaps just a set of machine parts functioning
together, to perform a particular operation

Processes.
A progressively continuing operation or development marked by a series of gradual changes that
succeed one another in a relatively fixed way and lead toward a particular results or end,
or
An artificial or voluntary, progressively continuing operation that consists of a series of controlled
actions or movements systematically directed tward a particular result or end

Systems. A combination of components that act together and perform a certain objective.

Note 1: An Introduction to Control Systems 12

 Disturbances. A disturbance is a signal that tends to adversely affect the
value of the output of a system. 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.

Feedback Control. Feedback Control refers to an operation that, in the

presence of disturnances, tends to reduce the difference between the
output of a system and some reference inout that does so on the basis of
this difference.

Note 1: An Introduction to Control Systems 13

 Speed control system

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 Temperature control system

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 Temperature control of passenger compartment of a car
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 Feedback control systems. A system that maintains a prescribed
relationship between the output and the refrence input by
comparing them and using the difference as a means of control

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 Open-loop control systems. Those systems in which the output has no effect on the
control action are called open-loop control systems.

In other word, in an open-loop control system the output is neither measured nor fed
back for compensation with the input.

Note 1: An Introduction to Control Systems 19

 One practical example is a washing machine and dryer. Soaking, washing and rinsing
in the washer operate on a time basis. The machine does not measure the output
signal, that is, the cleanliness of the cloths

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 Closed-loop Control Systems. Feedback control systems are often refered to as
Closed-Loop control systems.
In a closed-loop control system the actuating eror signal, which is the
difference between the input signal and the feedback signal is fed to the
controller so to reduce the error and bring the output of the system to a
desired value.

Note 1: An Introduction to Control Systems 22

 Closed-loop feedback system with external disturbances and measurement
noise

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 Control system engineering focuses on the modeling of a
wide assortment of physical systems and using those models to design controllers
that will cause the closed-loop systems to possess desired performance
characteristics, such as:
• stability
• relative stability
• steady-state tracking
• transient tracking
• rejection of external disturbances
• robustness to modeling uncertainties.

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The control system design process

28
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Evolution of control systems and autonomy

32
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Examples of Control Systems

34
Example of Control System: Automobile
steering control system
Example of Control System: The driver uses the
difference between the actual and the desired
direction of travel to generate a controlled
adjustment of the steering wheel
Example of Control System: Typical
direction-of-travel response
Example of Control System:
Smart grids are distribution networks that
measure and control usage
Example of Control System:
Open-loop (without feedback) control of the speed of a
rotating disk. (b) Block diagram model
Example of Control System:
Closed-loop control of the speed of a rotating
disk. (b) Block diagram model
Example of Control System: The blood glucose and
insulin levels for a healthy person
Example of Control System:
Open-loop (without feedback) control and (b) closed-
loop control of blood glucose
 Example of Control System: A disk drive

(Ragnarock/Shutterstock.)
Example of Control System: Diagram of a disk
drive
Example of Control System:
Closed-loop control system for disk drive
Example of Control System: System with
control device, actuator, and process
Example of Control System: Partial block
diagram of an optical source
Figure P1.21 Two helicopters used to
lift and move a large load
Figure P1.26 Microrover designed to
explore an asteroid

(Photo courtesy of NASA.)

Figure AP1.1 Microsurgery robotic
manipulator

(Photo courtesy of NASA.)

Figure AP1.3 Automated parallel
parking of an automobile
Figure AP1.5 The world’s tallest
building in Dubai

(Photo courtesy of Obstando Images/Alamy.)

Figure AP1.6 A robotic vacuum cleaner
communicates with the base station as it
maneuvers around the room

(Photo courtesy of Hugh Threlfall/Alamy.)

Figure AP1.7 Space X return landing
on sea- based drone ship
Figure CDP1.1 Machine tool with table
Figure DP1.3 Using a smart phone to
remotely monitor and control a washing
machine

(Photo courtesy of Mikkel William/E+/Getty Images.)

Figure DP1.5 Robot welder
Figure DP1.8 An artist illustration of a
nanorobot interacting with human
blood cells
Figure DP1.9 Personal transportation
vehicle

(Photo courtesy of Sergiy Kuzmin/Shutterstock.)

Figure DP1.10 Maintaining cruise
speed at a prescribed distance