Chapter 6 - Introduction to Control

6.1 Introduction: A control system can be thought of as a system which for some particular
input or inputs is used to control its output to some particular value, give a particular sequence of
events or give an event if certain conditions are met.
(i) Control a variable to obtain the required variable
Example: In a bottling plant the bottles are automatically filled to the required level. The
variable being controlled is the liquid level in a bottle and control is exercised to ensure no
difference between the required levels in all bottles.
(ii)Control the sequence of events
Example: You set the dials on the automatic clothes washing machine to indicate that 'whites'
are being washed and the machine then goes through the complete washing cycle appropriate to
that type of clothing. This is an example of a control system where a controlled sequence of
events occurs.
(iii) Control whether an event occurs or not
Example: Now a day’s all the cars/machines are having a safety lock on the door so that the
machine will not operate if the power is off and the door open. The control is of the condition
which allows the machine to operate.
Industrial control is defined here as the automatic regulation of unit operations and their
associated equipment, as well as the integration and coordination of the unit operations in the
larger production system. The term automation is used to describe the automatic operation or
control of a process. In modem manufacturing there is an ever increasing use of automation, e.g.
automatically operating machinery, perhaps in a production line with robots, which can be used
to produce components with virtually no human intervention. Also, in appliances around the
home and in the office there is an ever increasing use of automation. Automation involves
carrying out operations in the required sequence and controlling outputs to required values.
Definition: A control system consists of subsystems and processes (or plants) assembled for the
purpose of obtaining a desired output with desired performance, given a specified input. Figure
6.1 shows a control system in its simplest form, where the input represents a desired output.

Figure 6.1 Simplified description of a control system

Advantages of Control Systems: With control systems we can move large equipment with
precision that would otherwise be impossible. We can point huge antennas toward the farthest
reaches of the universe to pick up faint radio signals; controlling these antennas by hand would
be impossible. Because of control systems, elevators carry us quickly to our destination,
automatically stopping at the right floor. We alone could not provide the power required for the
load and the speed; motors provide the power, and control systems regulate the position and
speed. We build control systems for four primary reasons:
1. Power amplification
 2. Remote control
3. Convenience of input form
4. Compensation for disturbances
6.2 A History of Control Systems: Feedback control systems are older than humanity.
Numerous biological control systems were built into the earliest inhabitants of our planet. Let us
now look at a brief history of human-designed control systems.
Liquid-Level Control: The Greeks began engineering feedback systems around 300 B.C. A
water clock invented by Ktesibios operated by having water trickle into a measuring container at
a constant rate. The level of water in the measuring container could be used to tell time.
Steam Pressure and Temperature Controls: Regulation of steam pressure began around 1681
with Denis Papin’s invention of the safety valve. If the upward pressure from the boiler exceeded
the weight, steam was released, and the pressure decreased. If it did not exceed the weight, the
valve did not open, and the pressure inside the boiler increased.
Speed Control: In 1745, speed control was applied to a windmill by Edmund Lee. Increasing
winds pitched the blades farther back, so that less area was available. As the wind decreased,
more blade area was available.
Also in the eighteenth century, James Watt invented the flyball speed governor to control the
speed of steam engines. In this device, two spinning flyballs rise as rotational speed increases. A
steam valve connected to the flyball mechanism closes with the ascending flyballs and opens
with the descending flyballs, thus regulating the speed.
Stability, Stabilization, and Steering: During the second half of the 1800s, the development of
control systems focused on the steering and stabilizing of ships. In 1874, Henry Bessemer, using
a gyro to sense a ship’s motion and applying power generated by the ship’s hydraulic system,
moved the ship’s saloon to keep it stable.
Twentieth-Century Developments: It was not until the early 1900s that automatic steering of
ships was achieved. However, much of the general theory used today to improve the
performance of automatic control systems is attributed to Nicholas Minorsky, a Russian born in
1885. It was his theoretical development applied to the automatic steering of ships that led to
what we call today proportional-plus-integral-plus-derivative (PID), or three-mode, controllers,
which we will study in fifth year.
Contemporary Applications: Today, control systems find widespread application in the guidance,
navigation, and control of missiles and spacecraft, as well as planes and ships at sea. For
example, modern ships use a combination of electrical, mechanical, and hydraulic components to
develop rudder commands in response to desired heading commands. The rudder commands, in
turn, result in a rudder angle that steers the ship. We find control systems throughout the process
control industry, regulating liquid levels in tanks, chemical concentrations in vats, as well as the
thickness of fabricated material.
For example, consider a thickness control system for a steel plate finishing mill. Steel enters the
finishing mill and passes through rollers. In the finishing mill, X-rays measure the actual
thickness and compare it to the desired thickness. Any difference is adjusted by a screw-down
position control that changes the roll gap at the rollers through which the steel passes. This
change in roll gap regulates the thickness.
Modern developments have seen widespread use of the digital computer as part of control
systems. For example, computers in control systems are for industrial robots, spacecraft, and the
process control industry. It is hard to visualize a modern control system that does not use a
digital computer.
6.3 System Configurations: In this section, we discuss two major configurations of control
systems: open loop and closed loop. We can consider these configurations to be the internal
architecture of the total system shown in Figure 6.1. Finally, we show how a digital computer
forms part of a control system’s configuration.
Open-Loop Systems: An open control system simply executes the program of instructions
without a feedback loop. No measurement of the output variable is made, so there is no
comparison between output and input in an open-loop system. In effect, the controller relies on
the expectation that the actuator will have the intended effect on the output variable. Thus, there
is always a risk in an open-loop system that the actuator will not function properly or that its
actuation will not have the expected effect on the output. On the other hand, the advantage of an
open-loop system is that its cost is less than a comparable closed-loop system.
A generic open-loop system is shown in Figure 6.2(a). The system has three basic elements:
control, actuator and the process of which a variable is being controlled. It starts with a
subsystem called an input, given to the controller. The controller drives a process or a plant. The
input is sometimes called the reference, while the output can be called the controlled variable.
For example, the plant can be a furnace or air conditioning system, where the output variable is
temperature. The controller in a heating system consists of fuel valves and the electrical system
that operates the valves.

Figure 6.2 Block diagrams of control systems: a. open-loop system; b. closed-loop system
Closed-Loop (Feedback Control) Systems: A closed-loop system, also known as a feedback
control system, is one in which the process variable of interest (output of the process) is
compared with the corresponding process parameter (input to the process), and any difference
between them is used to drive the output value into agreement with the input. (figure 6.2)
The closed-loop system compensates for disturbances by measuring the output response, feeding
that measurement back through a feedback path, and comparing that response to the input at the
summing junction. If there is any difference between the two responses, the system drives the
plant, via the actuating signal, to make a correction. If there is no difference, the system does not
drive the plant, since the plant’s response is already the desired response. Closed-loop systems,
then, have the obvious advantage of greater accuracy than open-loop systems.
 Figure 6.3 (a) an open-loop and (b) a closed loop control system for a numerical-control
machine.
Industrial controllers, for instance, in the petrochemical industry, automotive industry, soda
processing industry, and the like, have completely different types of control functions. The
control loops can be very complex, requiring microprocessor supervision, down to very simple
loops such as those used for controlling water temperature or heating, ventilation, and air-
conditioning (HVAC) for comfort. The output level is monitored against a set reference level
and any difference detected between the two is amplified and used to control an input
variable which will maintain the output at the set reference level.
6.4 Case studies:
(i) Control of the position of a tool: Figure 6.4. shows a position control system using a belt driven by a stepper
motor to control the position of a tool and Figure 6.5 its block diagram representation.

Figure 6.4 Position control system (Physical system)

The inputs to the controller are the required position voltage and a voltage giving a measure of
the position of the workpiece, this being provided by a potentiometer being used as a position
sensor. Because a microprocessor is used as the controller, these signals have to be processed to
be digital. The output from the controller is an electrical signal which depends on the error
between the required and actual positions and is used, via a drive unit, to operate a stepper motor.
Input to the stepper motor causes it to rotate its shaft in steps, so rotating the belt and moving the
tool.
 Figure 6.5 Position control system (block diagram)
(ii) Power steering: Control systems are used to not only maintain some variable constant at a
required value but also to control a variable so that it follows the changes required by a variable
input signal. An example of such a control system is the power steering system used with a car.
This comes into operation whenever the resistance to turning the steering wheel exceeds a
predetermined amount and enables the movement of the wheels to follow the dictates of the
angular motion of the steering wheel. The input to the system is the angular position of the
steering wheel.
This mechanical signal is scaled down by gearing and has subtracted from it a feedback signal
representing the actual position of the wheels. This feedback is via a mechanical linkage. Thus
when the steering wheel is rotated and there is a difference between its position and the required
position of the wheels, there is an error signal. The error signal is used to operate a hydraulic
valve and so provide a hydraulic signal to operate a cylinder. The output from the cylinder is
then used, via a linkage, to change the position of the wheels. Figure 6.6 shows a block diagram
of the system.

Figure 6.6: Power assisted steering

(iii) Thickness control: As an illustration of a process control system. Figure 6.7 shows the type
of system that might be used to control the thickness of sheet produced by rollers. Figure 6.8
showing the block diagram description.
The thickness of the sheet is monitored by a sensor such as a linear variable differential
transformer (LVDT). The position of the LVDT probe is set so that when the required thickness
sheet is produced, there is no output from the LVDT. The LVDT produces an alternating current
output, the amplitude of which is proportional to the error. This is then converted to a d.c. error
signal which is fed to an amplifier. The amplified signal is then used to control the speed of a d.c.
motor, generally being used to vary the armature current. The rotation of the shaft of the motor is
likely to be geared down and then used to rotate a screw which alters the position of the upper
roll, hence changing the thickness of the sheet produced.

Figure 6.7 Sheet thickness control Process

Figure 6.8 Sheet thickness control system

6.5 Modeling the control system: Suppose we have a control system for the temperature in a
room (air conditioner). What will happen to the temperature when the thermostat has its set value
increased from, say, 20°C to 22°C? In order to determine how the output of a control system will
react to different inputs, we need a mathematical model of the system so that we have an
equation describing how the output of the system is related to its input. Then we can use the
equation to make a prediction of what will happen. We are concerned with not only what
temperature the room ends up at but how it varies with time as it changes to the required value.
6.5.1 Gain: In the case of an amplifier system we might have the output directly proportional to
the input and, with a gain of 10, if we have an input of a 1 V signal we can calculate that the
output will be ten times greater and so 10 V. In general, for such a system where the output is
directly proportional to the input, we can write: Output = G x input, with G being the gain

Figure 6.9 Amplifier system with the output ten times the input
Example: A motor has an output speed which is directly proportional to the voltage applied to
its armature. If the output is 5 rev/s when the input voltage is 2 V, what is the system gain?
With output = G X input, then G = 5/2 = 2.5 (rev/s)V.
Gain of systems in series: Consider two systems, e.g. amplifiers, in series with the first having a
gain G1 and the second a gain G2 (Figure 6.10(a)). The first system has an input of x1 and an
output of y1 and thus: y1 = G1 x1
The second system has an input of y1 and an output of y2 and thus: y2 = G2 y2 = G2 x G1 x1
The overall system has an input of x1 and an output of y2 and thus, if we represent the overall
system as having a gain of G = G1G2

Figure 6.10 (a) two systems Figure 6.11 System with negative feedback
in series, (b) the equivalent system
Feedback loops: Consider a system with negative feedback (Figure 6.11). The output of the
system is fed back via a measurement system with a gain H to subtract from the input to a system
with gain G.
The input to the feedback system is y and thus its output, i.e. the feedback signal, is Hy. The error
is (x – Hy). Hence, the input to the G system (x – Hy) and its output y. Thus:
y=G(x - Hy) and so:
(1+GH) y = Gx
The overall output of the system is y for an input x and so the overall gain G of the system y/x.
Hence: G/(1+GH)
For a system with positive feedback the overall gain G of the system y/x. Hence: G/(1- GH)
6.5.2 Transfer function: The term gain is used to relate the input and output of a system with
gain G = output/input. When we are working with inputs and outputs described as functions of s
we define the transfer function G(s) as [output Y(s)/input X(s)]. A transfer function can be
represented as a block diagram. The overall transfer functions of systems involving series
connected elements and systems with feedback loops are calculated for further system analysis.

6.6 Control System response and analysis: So far a control system is described by means of a
transfer function which is obtained from output divided by the input when both are written as
Laplace transforms. We can use such transfer functions to determine how the output of a system
will change with time for particular inputs, namely step, impulse and ramp.
The same concept is used for the steady-state output responses of systems when the inputs are
sinusoidal signals. This leads to powerful methods of analyzing systems in considering how the
amplitude and phase of the output signal varies as the frequency of the input sinusoidal signal is
changed. This variation is termed the frequency response of the system and can be described by,
what are termed. Bode diagrams.