Control Engineering

An Overview and Brief History of Feedback Control

Control is a very common concept. The term is used to refer to certain specific kinds of human-machine interactions, as in driving a car, where it is necessary to control the vehicle in order to arrive safely at a planned destination. Such systems require manual control.

Automatic control involves machines, as in room-temperature control, where a furnace is turned on and off depending on a thermostat reading to control the temperature in the room.

From these two scenarios we can generalize a first simple engineering definition of control: Control is the process of causing a system variable to conform to some desired value, called a reference value (or set point value). In the furnace example, temperature is the system variable being controlled.

An extensive body of knowledge common to both manual and automatic control has evolved into the discipline of control systems analysis and design. More specifically, we are primarily concerned with the special class of control systems that use feedback. Feedback is the process of measuring the controlled variable and using that information to influence the value of the controlled variable. The list of variables subject to control is vast, being only limited by your imagination.

For example: in the chemical industry, control is applied to fluid flow, liquid flow, gas flow, gas pressure, chemical concentrations, and to many other variables; in robots control has been applied to position, speed, and force; within a human body, blood pressure, blood sugar, and eye-pupil diameter are only a few of the many variables controlled by biological mechanisms that are in principal similar to automatic control and can be studied by the methods of feedback control.

CE-01-Introduct

G. Lappus, U. Rau

Control Engineering

Other examples of feedback control include airplane automatic pilots that land the airplane in dense fog, space telescopes that have a pointing accuracy of about a millionth of a degree, computer disk-drive read/write heads that are accurate to about a micron.

A Simple Feedback System In feedback systems the variable being controlled is measured by a sensor, and the information is fed back to the process to influence the controlled variable. The principle can be illustrated by a household furnace controlled by a thermostat. The components of this system are shown in Fig. 1 as a block diagram. A component block diagram identifies the major components as blocks in the system, omits details, and without equations shows the major directions of information, mass and energy flow from one component to another.

Desired temperature

Heat loss QOut Thermostat Gas valve Q in Furnace

Room temperature House

Fig. 1

Component block diagram of a room-temperature control system.

We can easily analyze the operation of this system qualitatively. Suppose both the temperature in the house where the thermostat is located and the outside temperature are significantly below the desired temperature when we start operation. The thermostat will be on, and the control logic will transmit power to the furnace gas valve, which will open. This will cause the furnace to fire, the blower to run, and heat to be supplied to the house. If the furnace is properly designed, the input heat Qin will be much larger than the heat loss Qout , and the room temperature will rise until it exceeds the thermostat setting by a small amount. At this time the furnace will be turned off, and room temperature will start to fall toward the outside value. When it falls a degree or so below the set point of the thermostat, the thermostat will come on again, and the cycle will repeat.

CE-01-Introduct

G. Lappus, U. Rau

Control Engineering

From this example we can identify the generic components of the elementary feedback control system, shown in Fig. 2. The central component is the plant or process, one of whose output variables is to be controlled. In our example the process is the house, the output is the house temperature, and the disturbance to the process is the flow of heat from the house due to conduction through the walls, roof, windows, and doors to the lower outside temperature. (The outward flow of heat also depends on other factors such as wind, open windows, etc.) The actuator is the device that can influence the controlled variable of the process; in our case, the actuator is the gas furnace. Actually, the furnace has a pilot light, a gas valve, and a blower fan, which turns on or off depending on the air temperature in the furnace. These details illustrate the fact that many feedback systems contain components that themselves form other feedback systems.

Disturbance Comparator Actuator Reference + input

(Controller)

Control input

Plant
(Process)

Output

Output sensor

Fig. 2

Component block diagram of elementary feedback control.

The component labeled thermostat in Fig. 1 is divided into three parts in Fig. 2: the reference and output sensors and the comparator. For purpose of feedback control we need to measure the output variable (house temperature), sense the reference variable (desired temperature), and compare the two. As with this system, it is sometimes not possible for the controlled variable and the sensed variable to be the same. Although we wish to control the house temperature as a whole, the thermostat is in one particular room, which may or may not be the same temperature as the rest of the house. For example, if the thermostat is placed in the living room near a roaring fireplace, a person working in the study could still feel rather cold.

CE-01-Introduct

G. Lappus, U. Rau

Control Engineering

Signals and Block Diagrams Control Engineering Theory and tools to solve problems of automation in industrial processes automated manufacturing technology (construction of cars, machines, electronic components, ...) Control hardware: programmable controllers (PC) process technology / process engineering (chemistry, food industry, pharma- industry (medicaments), power industry (power stations), environmental technology, ...) Control hardware: process control systems (PCS) Control Engineering

Open-loop control

Closed-loop control (Feedback control)

Examples for signal types in process control: binary signals valve open 100% closed 0% switch on off limit indicator over limit under limit digital information 1 0

analog signals information (also depending on technical conditions) valve temperature sensor value between value between 0...100% min...max

For computer-based process control it is necessary to convert binary and analog signals to digital signals (hardware: analog-digital-converter). manufacturing technology more: less: binary signals analog signals open-loop control closed loop control

process technology more: less:

CE-01-Introduct

analog signals binary signals

closed-loop control open-loop control

4 G. Lappus, U. Rau

Control Engineering

process variables temperature pressure level flow

symbol T P L F

Elements of Block Diagrams

x(t) one input signal

y(t) one output signal

block symbol

description or mathematical relationship

signal arrow with direction x(t) signal name (process variable) signal junction x01(t) xi(t) x02(t) x03(t) summing point (summator, summing unit) xi1(t) + xi2(t) xi3(t) (look at the sign of the signal) _ + xa(t) xa(t) = xi1(t) -xi2(t) +xi3(t) xi(t) = x01(t)=x02(t)=x03(t)

multiplication by the constant K

y( t ) = K x( t )

x(t)

y(t)

integrator x(t)

y(t)

y( t ) = x( t ) dt
0

CE-01-Introduct

G. Lappus, U. Rau

Control Engineering

Component Block Diagram of a Simple Feedback Control Systems

disturbance comparator reference value _ output sensor

controller/ actuator

process/ plant

controlled output

feedback path

Functional Block Diagram of a Simple Feedback Control System (useful for mathematical modeling)

w1(t) input disturbance

w2(t) output disturbance

reference value r(t) error e(t) controller u(t) process

output y(t)

feedback path

Contents of these lectures and exercises - Mathematical basics, - Signals, - Modelling, - Theory of feedback control, - Design of simple systems.

CE-01-Introduct

G. Lappus, U. Rau

Control Engineering

A Brief History Fig. 6 shows one of the earliest known examples of feedback control, the control of liquidlevel and flow as practiced by the ancients (about 300 B.C.). The mechanism of the liquidlevel control is a float valve. The float is arranged so that, as the water level falls, the flow into the tank increases; and as the level rises, the flow is reduced, and, if necessary, cut off. Notice that the sensor and actuator are combined in one device. This old mechanism of liquid-level control is still used today, for example, in the water tank of an ordinary flush toilet.

Fig. 6 Early historical control of liquid level and flow.

About 1620, Cornelius Drebbel (Dutch) designed the temperature regulator of a furnace used to heat an incubator for hatching chicken eggs, see Fig. 7. Again we find the feedback principle.

Fig. 7 Drebbels incubator for hatching chicken eggs.

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Control Engineering

The furnace consists of a box to contain the fire, with a flue at the top, fitted with a damper. Inside the fire box is a double-walled incubator box. The hollow walls filled with water to transfer the heat evenly to the incubator. The temperature sensor is a glass vessel filled with alcohol and mercury and placed in the water. As the fire heat the box and the water, the alcohol expands and the riser floats up, lowering the damper on the flue, and the fire burns colder. If the box is too cold, the alcohol contracts, the damper is opened, and the fire burns hotter.

Perhaps, you have learned in school, that James Watt has invented the steam engine around 1788. That is wrong. His famous work was the adaptation of the fly-ball governor to the steam engine. Watt was a control engineer! Fig. 8 shows an early version of a steam engine from the shop of James Watt. A sketch of the components of a fly-ball governor is shown in Fig. 9.

Fig. 8 Steam engine from the shop of James Watt.

CE-01-Introduct

G. Lappus, U. Rau

Control Engineering

Fig. 9 Operating parts of a fly-ball governor. The action of the centrifugal governor is simple to describe. When the engine speed will slow (due to a load) the balls of the governor will drop to a smaller cone. This action, through the levers, will open the main valve to the steam chest (= actuator) and admit more steam to the engine, restoring the lost speed (more or less). Now, let us look at some major contributions or milestones to control theory and control application. 1830 G. B. Airy, England Speed control of a telescope, analysis of instability in a feedback control system using differential equation J. C. Maxwell, England First systematic study of stability of feedback control using differential equations criteria up to third order case E. J. Routh, England Stability criterion for higher order systems A.M. Lyapunov, Russia Stability of motion (used in control not until about 1958) H.S. Black, H.W. Bode, H. Nyquist (USA) Electronic feedback amplifier (telephone systems) N. Wiener Theory of stochastic processes H. Nyquist, USA Stability criteria, plot of the loop frequency response

1868

1877 1892 1927 1930 1932

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G. Lappus, U. Rau

Control Engineering

1936 1940-45 1948 1950-60

Callender, Hartree, Porter, USA PID controller (control of industrial processes) Enormous impulse to feedback control (theory and practice): Control of airplanes, guns, positioning systems, etc. W.R. Evans Root locus method for stability analysis R. Bellmann (USA), R.E. Kalman (USA), L.S. Pontryagin (USSR) State space description (differential equations), Optimal control of nonlinear systems Moscow: 1st IFAC World Congress (International Federation of Automatic Control; founded in Heidelberg, Germany) Invention of the microprocessor. Direct Digital Control (DDC) and Process Control Systems (PCS) Control Methods using Fuzzy-Theory and Neural Networks (Artificial Intelligence)

1960 1970 1980 1990

Summary
Control is the process of making a system variable adhere to a particular value, called the reference value. Two kinds of control were defined and illustrated: In open-loop control the system does not measure the output, and there is no compensation of that output to make it conform to the desired output. In closed-loop control the system uses feedback, which is the process of measuring a control variable and returning the output to influence the value of the variable. A simple feedback system consists of the controller/actuator, the comparator, the process or plant, the reference input, and the output sensor. Block diagrams are helpful for visualizing what is happening in control systems. A component block diagram represents in block form the major components in a control system and shows the major directions of information, mass and energy flow from one component to another. A functional block diagram illustrates the mathematical relationships between the components in a control system.

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