International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, and Optimization Techniques (ICEEOT) - 2016
PID Controller Design for Cruise Control System
using Genetic Algorithm
M. K. Rout, D. Sain
Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
Ranchi, India
Abstract— In this paper, the design of a Proportional-
Integral-Derivative (PID) controller for the cruise control system
has been proposed. The cruise control system, which is a highly
nonlinear, has been linearized around the equilibrium point. The
controller has been designed for the linearized model, by taking
the dominant pole concept in the closed loop characteristic
equation. The PID controller parameters, i.e. proportional,
integral and derivative parameters have been tuned using
Genetic Algorithm (GA). In this study, the performance of the
controller has been compared with that of the conventional PID,
state space and Fuzzy logic based controller. The simulation
output reveals the superiority of the proposed controller in terms
of maximum overshoot, peak time, rise time, settling time and
steady state error. The sensitivity and complementary sensitivity
analysis show the robust behaviour of the system with output
disturbance and high-frequency noise rejection qualities. As a
scope of further research, fractional order and 2-dof PID
controller will be designed for this cruise control system and the
performance will be compared with this design.
Keywords— Cruise Control; PID; GA, Fuzzy Logic, Sensitivity.
I. INTRODUCTION
Automobile cruise control system [1] has become a
common feature of the modern vehicles for driver comfort in
long-distance travels. It reduces the physical as well as the
mental stress of drivers in highway drives by providing them
relief from regularly stepping on the pedal for adjusting gas
and looking at the speedometer for avoiding speeding tickets.
It also adds to the safety [2] of the passengers by reducing the
risks of high-speed accidents. It is primarily velocity or speed
control, which works on the principle of throttle position
controlling according to speed requirements. Cruise control
also improves the dynamic performance of the automobile,
reduces pollution due to exhaust and heightens the comfort
level of riders. A basic model of cruise control provides the
driver a push button for setting a speed reference. The actual
speed will be compared with the reference set-point, resulting
into optimal speed control.
The Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller
represents a traditional controller which is employed in a lot of
industrial applications. It takes the proportional (Kp), integral
(Ki) and derivative (Kd) parameters and adjusts them in a
manner which stabilises the plant according to some preset
values. It also works fine under closed loop control scheme for
978-1-4673-9939-5/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
S. K. Swain, S. K. Mishra
Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
Ranchi, India
different sets of plants. So it provides a diverse field of
controllers for the researchers to work upon.
GA is a field of search heuristic which imitates the
natural selection process in order to optimise the more
complex mathematical modelling equations, which are
cumbersome to do in a conventional way [3].
This paper proposes a PID controller that uses the
concept of dominant pole placement for stabilising an unstable
cruise control model and GA has been applied for optimising
the controller parameters in accordance with the given
specifications. The objective of this study is to get an
overshoot within the specified range and to minimise the
settling time. This controller when compared with the earlier
version of conventional PID, state space [4] and Fuzzy [5]
based controller gives better transient and steady-state
response. The values are confirmed by the simulation results
in Simulink model. The robustness of the system in the
presence of uncertain disturbances is explored in the end and
they demonstrate the robust behaviour of the closed loop
system according to control theory expectations.
II. CRUISE CONTROL SYSTEM
The basic problem of cruise control system is to maintain
the speed set by the driver or in other words, the speed of the
automobile should match a preset value. The main
disturbances to this constant speed drive come from the slopes
of the road, where gravitational pull effect comes to the front
and, second is the wind resistance against the velocity. A
schematic diagram of a car in the slope of a road is given in
the Fig.1.
Fig. 1.Schematic diagram of automobile on a slope
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 The cruise control system calculates the difference in speed
owing to these disturbances and delivers a control signal to the
actuators governing the throttle valve of the automobile to
maintain the fuel injection to the engine, thus providing an
optimum speed.

The transfer function [6] for such a cruise control system is:
ଶǤସ଻଺଻
‫ܩ‬௣ ሺ‫ݏ‬ሻ ൌ ሺ௦ା଴Ǥ଴ସ଻଺ሻሺ௦ାଵሻሺ௦ାହሻ (1)

III. GENETIC ALGORITHM

GA provides a unique search and optimisation method

for complex mathematical problems by taking into account the
process of natural selection in the evolution of biological
beings.

GA uses powerful probabilistic approach for solving Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of PID controller
optimisation problems. First introduced by John Holland, this
evolutionary technique creates an initial set of population A. Dominant Pole Calculation
based on the particular problem and then, modifies individual
members of the population by using genetic operators like The design specifications for this study have been
selection, crossover and mutation operators. Each individual considered as:
member of the population is known as a string of
chromosome, which goes through the operators to give the Maximum overshoot (Mp) ൑ 10% and
best possible solution or offspring.
Settling time (ts) ൑ 5 sec
GA [7] has advantages over the traditional derivative-
From the basics of the control system, it is known that
based optimisation algorithms by providing global optimum to
maximum overshoot is a function of ȗ and settling time is a
ensure convergence of the solution. Due to these advantages, it
function of ȗ and ߱௡ . The formulas for maximum overshoot
can be used in almost all types of problems and also doesn’t
and settling time is provided in equation (3) and (4)
require complete mathematical knowledge of the problem.
Maximum overshoot
IV. CONTROLLER DESIGN షഏ഍

ටభష഍మ
Because of simple structure and easy implementation, PID Mp =݁ ሺ͵ሻ
controller is widely used in the field of control engineering.
The general structure of PID controller is For 2% tolerance band, settling time
ସ
௞
‫ܩ‬௉ூ஽ ሺ‫ݏ‬ሻ ൌ  ݇௣ ൅ ೔ ൅  ݇ௗ ‫ݏ‬ (2) ts =  (4)
కఠ೙
௦
™Š‡”‡ǡ ݇௣ ൌ ’”‘’‘”–‹‘ƒŽ‰ƒ‹
݇௜ ൌ ‹–‡‰”ƒŽ‰ƒ‹ Using the optimum values of maximum overshoot and
݇ௗ ൌ †‡”‹˜ƒ–‹˜‡‰ƒ‹ settling time, ȗ and ߱௡ are found to be 0.5913 and 1.3529
respectively. Substituting the values of ȗ and ߱௡ in the
The schematic diagram of PID controller with process and standard second order characteristics equation (‫ ݏ‬ଶ ൅ ʹߦ߱௡ ‫ ݏ‬൅
unity feedback is shown in Fig. 2. ߱௡ ଶ ൌ Ͳ), the dominant poles have been found to be at

‫ݏ‬ଵǡଶ ൌ െͲǤͺ േ ͳǤͲͻ݅ (5)

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B. System with PID Controller

The characteristics equation of the system with PID

controller for unity feedback is given by

ͳ ൅ ‫ܩ‬௣ ሺ‫ݏ‬ሻ‫ܩ‬௉ூ஽ ሺ‫ݏ‬ሻ ൌ Ͳ (6)

ଶǤସ଻଺଻ ௞೔
݅Ǥ ݁Ǥͳ ൅ ቀሺ௦ା଴Ǥ଴ସ଻଺ሻሺ௦ାଵሻሺ௦ାହሻቁ ቀ݇௣ ൅ ൅  ݇ௗ ‫ݏ‬ቁ ൌ Ͳ (7)
௦

Substituting the value of s1 in the above equation, the real

(R) and imaginary (I) parts are found to be

ܴ ൌ ͳ െ ͲǤ͵Ͳ͵ʹ݇௣ ൅ ͲǤʹͺͳ͵݇௜ െ ͲǤͲʹʹͻ݇ௗ (9)

‫ ܫ‬ൌ ͲǤʹͶ͵ͷ݇௣ ൅ ͲǤͲ͹Ͷʹ݇௜ െ ͲǤͷʹͷʹ݇ௗ (10)

The objective function ‘f’ considered for computing the
value of kp, ki and kd, has the following format
݂ ൌ ȁܴȁ ൅ ȁ‫ܫ‬ȁ
C. Objective Function Optimization using GA
Fig. 3.Cruise Control System with PID controller.
For 20 seconds, the simulation is carried out and the
(11) response of simulation with PID controller has been provided
in figure 4.

The objective function ‘f’ has been optimized through GA

for finding the PID controller parameter values. The ranges of
the unknown variables i.e. kp, ki and kd, have been decided
after a number of trial runs and provided in Table 1. The
parameters considered for writing the MATLAB code have
been listed in Table 2.
TABLE.I

Parameter Lower Range Upper Range

kp 3 4
ki 0.1 0.25
kd 3 4 Fig. 4.Simulink response of the system with PID controller.

TABLE.II The maximum overshoot, peak time, rise time and settling
time for this design is 1.14%, 2.15 sec, 0.945 sec and 1.46 sec
Parameter Value respectively. The performance of this GA-based PID
controller is compared with that of the result listed in the paper
No. of population 40 [6] and summarized in Table 3.
Bit size 10 TABLE.III
Crossover probability 0.8 State Fuzzy
PID
Mutation probability 0.125 Specifications PID[6] using
Space[6] Logic[6]
GA
No, of iteration 25
Overshoot (%) 10.2 10 1.91 1.14
Optimizing the objective function through GA the values of Peak time (sec) 3.54 2.97 3.16 2.15
the unknowns are found to be kp = 3.5907, ki = 0.163 and kd
= 3.3021. Rise time (sec) 5.5 5 3.37 0.945
Settling time
V. SIMULATION DIAGRAM AND RESULT 1.7 1.38 2.21 1.46
(sec)
Steady state
0.01 0.01 0.01 0
The input signal considered for the study is unit step error (%)
signal. The simulation diagram of the system with PID
controller is given bellow.

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A. Root Locus Analysis
Through Root locus, the time domain and stabilization
behaviours of the control system are analyzed in [8]. The root
locus curve for the system with the PID controller has been
provided in Fig. 5. As all the closed loop pole lies in the left
half of ‘s’ plane, the system is found to be stable.
Fig. 5. Root locus curve of the system with PID controller
B. Bode Analysis
The information regarding the frequency response of a
system can be analyzed through bode plot [8]. The magnitude
and phase plot of the cruise control system with the PID
controller optimized using GA is shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. Bode plots of the system with PID controller
C. Robustness Analysis
A system is said to be robust if it can hold its stability in
the presence of some noise or disturbance and satisfies some
specific conditions. The gain and phase margin, sensitivity and
complementary sensitivity are useful for robustness analysis.
Sensitivity is a measure of output disturbance rejection
whereas; complementary sensitivity ensures high-frequency
noise rejection. For a system to be robust, sensitivity and
complementary sensitivity should be less than or equal to two
[8]. For the system with PID controller, it has been observed
that
ܵ݁݊‫ ݕݐ݅ݒ݅ݐ݅ݏ‬ൌ ͳǤͳͻͶͳ
‫ ݕݐ݅ݒ݅ݐ݅ݏ݊݁ܵݕݎܽݐ݈݊݁݉݁݌݉݋ܥ‬ൌ ͳ
The above findings are clear identifications of the system
to be robust.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the design of PID controller using GA for the
cruise control system has been proposed. The performance of
the controller has been compared with the conventional PID,
state space and Fuzzy logic controller. The result of
comparison show the superiority of the GA-based PID
controller over the other controllers in terms of maximum
overshoot, peak time, rise time, settling time and steady state
error. Sensitivity and complementary sensitivity analysis show
the robust behavior of the system in terms of output
disturbance rejection and high-frequency noise rejection. In
future, fractional order controller will be designed and the
performance of the system will be compared with this design.
In future this work can be extended to fractional order as
well as 2-DOF PID controller design and the ensuing results
can be compared with the current work.
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