Control engineering:

Control engineering is a type of engineering that applies control theory to various design systems. Control engineers work with numerous types of technology from household appliances to rockets in order to create control systems. Control engineering is based upon specific mathematical theories that allow engineers to effectively gather control feedback. Control system: A Control System consists of subsystems and processes (or plants) assembled to control the outputs of a process.

Or we can define control system as: A Control System is an arrangement of physical components connected/related in such a manner as to command, direct or regulate itself or another system. The term "control system" may be applied to the essentially manual controls that allow an operator, for example, to close and open a hydraulic press, perhaps including logic so that it cannot be moved unless safety guards are in place. An automatic sequential control system may trigger a series of mechanical actuators in the correct sequence to perform a task. For example various electric and pneumatic transducers may fold and glue a cardboard box, fill it with product and then seal it in an automatic packaging machine.
There are two types of control systems namely: 1. Open loop control systems (non-feedback control systems) 2. Closed loop control systems (feedback control systems)

Open loop control system:

If in a physical system there is no automatic correction of the variation in its output, it is called an open loop control system. That is, in this type of system, sensing of the actual output and comparing of this output (through feedback) with the desired input does not take place. The system on its own is not in a position to give the desired output and it cannot take into account the disturbances. In these systems, the changes in output can be corrected only by changing the input manually.

These systems are simple in construction, stable and cost cheap. But these systems are inaccurate and unreliable. Moreover these systems do not take account of external disturbances that affect the output and they do not initiate corrective actions automatically. Examples of open loop control systems: 1. Automatic washing machine 2. traffic signal system 3. home heating system( without sensing, feedback and control) Any non-feedback control system can be considered as a feedback control system if it is under the supervision of someone. Although open loop control systems have economical components and are simple in design, they largely depend on human judgment. As an example, let us consider a home furnace control system. This system must control the temperature in a room, keeping it constant. An open loop system usually has a timer which instructs the system to switch on the furnace for some time and then switch it off. Accuracy cannot be achieved as the system does not switch on/off based on the room temperature but it does as per the present value of time.

Fig. : An example of an open-loop water-level control system.

Closed loop control system:

A closed loop control system is a system where the output has an effect upon the input quantity in such a manner as to maintain the desired output value. An open loop control system becomes a closed loop control system by including a feedback. This feedback will automatically correct the change in output due to disturbances. This is why a closed loop control system is called as an automatic control system. The block diagram of a closed loop control system is shown in figure. In a closed loop control system, the controlled variable (output) of the system is sensed at every instant of time, feedback and compared with the desired input resulting in an error signal. This error signal directs the control elements in the system to do the necessary corrective action such that the output of the system is obtained as desired. The feedback control system takes into account the disturbances also and makes the corrective action. These control systems are accurate, stable and less affected by noise. But these control systems are sophisticated and hence costly. They are also complicated to design for stability, give oscillatory response and feedback brings down the overall gain of the control system.

Fig. : An example of a closed control system.

Figure showing comparison between open loop and closed loop control system:

Practical examples:
1. Home Temperature Control As shown below (click for a large view), the home heating control system described in this article can be organized as a traditional control loop block diagram. Block diagrams help us visualize the components of a loop and see how the pieces are connected. A home heating system is simple on/off control with many of the components contained in a small box mounted on our wall. Nevertheless, we introduce the idea of control loop diagrams by presenting a home heating system in the same way we would a more sophisticated commercial control application.

Starting from the far right in the diagram above, our process variable of interest is house temperature. A sensor, such as a thermistor in a modern digital thermostat, measures temperature and transmits a signal to the controller. The measured temperature PV signal is subtracted from set point to compute controller error, e(t) = SP PV. The action of the controller is based on this error, e(t). In our home heating system, the controller output (CO) signal is limited to open/close for the fuel flow solenoid valve (our FCE). So in this example, if e(t) = SP PV > 0, the

controller signals to open the valve. If e(t) = SP PV < 0, it signals to close the valve. As an aside, note that there also must be a safety interlock to ensure that the furnace burner switches on and off as the fuel flow valve opens and closes. As the energy output of the furnace rises or falls, the temperature of our house increases or decreases and a feedback loop is complete. The important elements of a home heating control system can be organized like any commercial application: Control Objective: maintain house temperature at SP in spite of disturbances Process Variable: house temperature Measurement Sensor: thermistor; or bimetallic strip coil on analog models Measured Process Variable (PV) Signal: signal transmitted from the thermistor Set Point (SP): desired house temperature Controller Output (CO): signal to fuel valve actuator and furnace burner Final Control Element (FCE): solenoid valve for fuel flow to furnace Manipulated Variable: fuel flow rate to furnace Disturbances (D): heat loss from doors, walls and windows; changing outdoor temperature; sunrise and sunset; rain.

2. Cruise Control and Measuring Our PV Cruise control in a car is a reasonably common intermediate value control system. For those who are unfamiliar with cruise control, here is how it works. We first enable the control system with a button on the car instrument panel. Once on the open road and at our desired cruising speed, we press a second button that switches the controller from manual mode (where car speed is adjusted by our foot) to automatic mode (where car speed is adjusted by the controller). The speed of the car at the moment we close the loop and switch from manual to automatic becomes the set point. The controller then continually computes and transmits corrective actions to the gas pedal (throttle) to maintain measured speed at set point. It is often cheaper and easier to measure and control a variable directly related to the process variable of interest. This idea is central to control system design and maintenance. And this is why the loop diagrams above distinguish between our "process variable" and our "measured PV signal."

Cruise control serves to illustrate this idea. Actual car speed is challenging to measure. But transmission rotational speed can be measured reliably and inexpensively. The transmission connects the engine to the wheels, so as it spins faster or slower, the car speed directly increases or decreases. Thus, we attach a small magnet to the rotating output shaft of the car transmission and a magnetic field detector (loops of wire and a simple circuit) to the body of the car above the magnet. With each rotation, the magnet passes by the detector and the event is registered by the circuitry as a click. As the drive shaft spins faster or slower, the click rate and car speed increase or decrease proportionally. So a cruise control system really adjusts fuel flow rate to maintain click rate at the set point value. With this knowledge, we can organize cruise control into the essential design elements: Control Objective: maintain car speed at SP in spite of disturbances Process Variable: car speed Measurement Sensor: magnet and coil to clock drive shaft rotation Measured Process Variable (PV) Signal: "click rate" signal from the magnet and coil Set Point (SP): desired car speed, recast in the controller as a desired click rate Controller Output (CO): signal to actuator that adjusts gas pedal (throttle) Final Control Element (FCE): gas pedal position Manipulated Variable: fuel flow rate Disturbances (D): hills, wind, curves, passing trucks The traditional block diagram for cruise control is thus: