CTMS Example: Root Locus Design for DC Motor Position Control Página 1 de 9

Example: Root Locus Design Method for DC

Motor Position Control
Drawing the open-loop root locus
Model reduction
Integral Control
Proportional plus Integral Control
Proportional plus Integral plus Derivative Control
Finding the gain using the rlocfind command and plotting the closed-loop response

From the main problem, the dynamic equations in transfer function form are the following:

and the system schematic looks like:

For the original problem setup and the derivation of the above equations, please refer to the
Modeling a DC Motor page.

With a 1 rad/sec step reference, the design criteria are:

 Settling time less than 0.04 seconds

 Overshoot less than 16%
 No steady-state error to a reference
 No steady-state error due to a disturbance

Now let's design a controller using the root locus method.

Create a new m-file and type in the following commands (refer to main problem for the details of
getting those commands).

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J=3.2284E-6;
b=3.5077E-6;
K=0.0274;
R=4;
L=2.75E-6;
num=K;
den=[(J*L) ((J*R)+(L*b)) ((b*R)+K^2) 0];
motor=tf(num,den);

Drawing the open-loop root locus

The main idea of root locus design is to find the closed-loop response from the open-loop root locus
plot. Then by adding zeros and/or poles to the original plant, the closed-loop response will be
modified. Let's first view the root locus for the plant. Add the following commands at the end of
your m-file.

rlocus(motor)
sgrid(.5,0)
sigrid(100)

The commands sgrid and sigrid are functions. Sgrid is a function in the control systems tool box, but
sigrid is not. You need to copy the sigrid.m file to your directory. Click here to see how to copy
sigrid.m into an m-file. The variab in the sgrid command are the zeta term (0.5 corresponds to a
overshoot of 16%), and the wn term (no rise time criteria) respectively. The variable in the sigrid
command is the sigma term (4/0.04 seconds = 100). Run the above m-file and you should get the
root locus plot below:

If you look at the axis scales on this plot, one open-loop pole is very far to the left (further than -
1x10^6). This pole does not affect the closed loop dynamics unless very large gains are used, where
the system becomes unstable. We will ignore this pole by doing a model reduction.

Model Reduction
If you have a transfer function which has one (or more) poles to the far left of the dominant poles,
you can neglect these poles and the closed-loop response for small gains will not be affected (for
large gains, these poles will push the root locus to the right-half plane, causing instability). The
correct way to neglect these poles, keeping the DC gain of the transfer function constant, is as

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follows:

Let's see what the poles of the original transfer function are. Enter the following command at the
MATLAB prompt:

roots(den)

You should see the following output:

ans =

1.0e+06 *

0
-1.4545
-0.0001

We want to neglect the pole at -1.45e6. This can be translated into MATLAB code as:

J=3.2284E-6;
b=3.5077E-6;
K=0.0274;
R=4;
L=2.75E-6;
num=K;
den=[(J*L) ((J*R)+(L*b)) ((b*R)+K^2) 0];
poles=roots(den);
den2=deconv(den,[1/max(abs(poles)) 1]);

motor=tf(num,den2);

You can now check that the other poles have not been affected by entering

roots(den2)

at the MATLAB prompt.

Now we can draw the root locus of the reduced system. Add the following commands to the end of
your m-file and re-run it.

rlocus(motor)
sgrid(.5,0)
sigrid(100)

You should obtain the following plot in which you can see that the closed-loop system will be stable
for small gains.

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We can see from this plot that the closed-loop poles are never fast enough to meet the settling time
requirement (that is, they never move to the left of the sigma=100 vertical line). Also, recall that we
need an integrator in the controller (not just in the system) to remove steady-state error due to a
disturbance.

Integral Control
Now, let's try using integral control to remove steady-state error to a disturbance. Modify your m-file
so it looks like:

J=3.2284E-6;
b=3.5077E-6;
K=0.0274;
R=4;
L=2.75E-6;
num=K;
den=[(J*L) ((J*R)+(L*b)) ((b*R)+K^2) 0];
poles=roots(den);
den2=deconv(den,[1/max(abs(poles)) 1]);
motor=tf(num,den2);

contr=tf(1,[1 0]);

rlocus(contr*motor)
sgrid(.5,0)
sigrid(100)

Note that this adds a 1/s term to the forward loop. Run this m-file and you will obtain the following
plot.

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From this root locus we can see that the closed-loop system under integral control is never stable,
and another controller must be used.

Proportional plus Integral Control

Now, let's modify the integral controller to a PI controller. Using PI instead of I control adds a zero
to the open-loop system. We'll place this zero at s=-20. The zero must lie between the open-loop
poles of the system in this case so that the closed-loop will be stable. Change the lines defining the
controller (numcf and dencf) in your m-file to the following.

contr=tf([1 20],[1 0]);

Re-run your m-file and obtain the following plot.

Note: You may not get a similar plot in your MATLAB window, depending on which
version of the rlocus command you are using. If the MATLAB output does not satisfy the

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rules of the root locus, or does not match your expectations, you can always specify
which gains you would like MATLAB to plot. For this particular root locus, the following
commands (replacing the rlocus command above) work well.

gain = 0:0.1:20;
rlocus(contr*motor,gain)

Now, we have managed to stabilize the system with zero steady-state error to a disturbance, but the
system will still not be fast enough.

Proportional plus Integral plus Derivative Control

In order to pull the root locus further to the left, to make it faster, we need to place a second open-
loop zero, resulting in a PID controller. After some experimentation, we can place the two PID zeros
at s=-60 and s=-70. Change the lines defining the controller in your m-file to the following.

numc=conv([1 60],[1 70]);

denc=[1 0];
contr=tf(numc,denc);

Re-run your m-file and obtain the following plot.

Now, we can see that two of the closed-loop poles loop around well within both the settling time and
percent overshoot requirements. The third closed loop pole moves from the open-loop pole at s=-
59.2 to the open loop zero at s=-60. This closed-loop pole nearly cancels with the zero (which
remains in the closed loop transfer function) because it is so close. Therefore, we can ignore its
effect. However, the other open-loop zero also remains in the closed-loop, and will affect the
response, slowing it down, and adding overshoot. Therefore, we have to be conservative in picking
where on the root locus we want the closed-loop poles to lie.

Finding the gain using the rlocfind command

If you recall, we need the settling time and the overshoot to be as small as possible, particularly
because of the effect of the extra zero. Large damping corresponds to points on the root locus near
the real axis. A fast response corresponds to points on the root locus far to the left of the imaginary

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axis. To find the gain corresponding to a point on the root locus, we can use the rlocfind command.
We can find the gain and plot the step response using this gain all at once. To do this, enter the
following commands at the end of your m-file and rerun it.

[k,poles] = rlocfind(contr*motor)
sys_cl=feedback(k*contr*motor,1);
t=0:0.001:.1;
step(sys_cl,t)

Go to the plot and select a point on the root locus on left side of the loop, close to the real axis as
shown below with the small + marks. This will ensure that the response will be as fast as possible
with as little overshoot as possible. These pole locations would indicate that the response would have
almost no overshoot, but you must remember that the zero will add some overshoot.

After doing this, you should see the following output in the MATLAB command window.

selected_point =

-1.3943e+02+ 1.8502e+01i

k =

0.1309

poles =

1.0e+06 *

-1.4542
-0.0001 + 0.0000i
-0.0001 - 0.0000i
-0.0001

Note that the values returned in your MATLAB command window may not be exactly the same, but
should at least have the same order of magnitude. You should also get the following step response
plot:

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As you can see, the system has an overshoot of approximately 15%, a settling time of approximately
0.04 seconds, and no steady-state error.

Let's now look at the disturbance response by computing the closed-loop disturbance transfer
function and plotting its step response. Add the following lines to your m-file:

dist_cl=feedback(motor,k*contr);
step(dist_cl,t)

Re-run your m-file, selecting the same point on the root locus, and you will get the following plot.

You can see that the response to a step disturbance reaches a steady-state value of zero, and in fact,
stays within 0.02 (or 2%) after 0.04 seconds. Therefore, all the design requirements have been met.

In this example, we placed zeros on the root locus to shape it the way we wanted. While some trial-
and error is necessary to place the zeros, it is helpful to understand how the root locus is drawn, and
MATLAB is used to verify and refine the placement.

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Root Locus Examples

Cruise Control | Motor Speed | Motor Position | Bus Suspension | Inverted Pendulum | Pitch
Controller | Ball and Beam

Motor Position Examples

Modeling | PID | Root Locus | Frequency Response | State Space | Digital Control | Simulink

Tutorials
MATLAB Basics | MATLAB Modeling | PID Control | Root Locus | Frequency Response | State
Space | Digital Control | Simulink Basics | Simulink Modeling | Examples

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