DEDAN KIMATHI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

DEGREE: BACHELOR OF SCIENCE/TELECOMUNICATION /EDUCATION IN ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC

ENGINEERING

CONTROL ENGINEERING I LABORATORY MANUAL

Theory
Open Loop Systems:
Those systems in which the output has no effect on the control action are called open loop control systems. In other words, in an open loop
control system the output is neither measured nor fed back for comparison with the input. Thus, to each reference input there corresponds to a
fixed operating condition; as a result, accuracy of the system depends upon calibration. In the presence of disturbances, an open loop
control system will not perform desired task. Open loop system can be used only if the relationship between input and output is known
and if there are neither internal nor external disturbances. Note that any system that operates on time basis is open loop.

Closed-loop systems:
Feedback control systems are often referred to as closed loop control systems. In practice, the terms feedback control and close loop control
are used interchangeable.
Let us start with the concept of a closed-loop feedback system. An amplifier is presented with signals from a summing junction.
Output voltage is modified by a factor B, subtracted from the input voltage, and the result is the signal that the amplifier is given to
amplify.

Then:

V2= AV1

V1=Vin - BV2
Substituting,
V2= A (Vin - BV2)
Rearranging,
V2 (1+BA) = Avin
 or
Op amp gains (A) are typically 50,000 to 100,000, at least at DC. Note, therefore, that the gain of this block is quite insensitive to A. For B = .01,

(which could include other terms in addition to the gain of the amplifier as will be shown) changed by a factor of 10 but the overall gain
changed by 0.9%.
This is the fundamental relationship for feedback control systems, and it's very powerful. Note that in general, A and B are differential equations
or Laplace transforms that describe the behavior of these functions with frequency and time. Because the transfer function above is a ratio of
polynomials, (A could be in series with some function G rather than just a gain block) and since the time and frequency nature of networks
can similarly be described as ratios of polynomials in s (Laplace transforms), many functions can be realized with this structure. Oscillators,
filters, amplifiers, impedance changers, negative-impedance blocks comprise just a few. For now we'll confine ourselves to a simple DC case.
Because A is large and BA is therefore large compared to 1, the transfer function can often be simplified to

Note that if other functions are in series with A, their transfer functions could be lumped with A and would cancel out as they did above.
This means that you can cancel or minimize the effects of functions you cannot control simply by including them "inside the loop" - i.e., in
series with A.
Standard Inputs
Standard inputs are usually listed in following order
An Impulse:
This is an instantaneous change in i lasting for zero length of time and returning to the initial value. This is mostly applied to digital system
where instantaneous values are sampled by digital to analog converters. It is widely used as a standard input to a system to compare the
responses of different systems.

A Step Change
This is an instantaneous change in the input which then remains at the new value

i = H at all values of time after t = 0. H is the change or height of step

A Ramp or Velocity Change
This is when the input changes at a constant rate. It is also called a velocity input
C is the rate of change (Velocity).
A parabolic or Acceleration Change
This is when

This is also known as acceleration since the rate of rate of change is a constant ‘a’.
First-Order Systems
 Consider the first-order system shown in (1). Physically, this system may represent an RC circuit, thermal system, or the like. A simplified
block diagram is shown in figure below

(A) Block diagram of a first-order system (B) Simplified block diagram

In the following, we shall analyze the system responses to such inputs as the unit-step, unit-ramp, and unit-impulse functions. The initial
conditions are assumed to be zero.
Note that all systems having the same transfer function will exhibit the same output in response to the same input. For any given
physical system, the mathematical response can be given a physical interpretation.
Unit-step response of first-order systems Since the Laplace transform of the unit-step function is 1/s, substituting R(s) = 1/s into Equation,
we obtain

Expanding C(s) into partial fractions gives

 inverse Laplace transform of (2), we obtain

Equation states that initially the output c(t) is zero and finally it becomes unity. One important characteristic of such an exponential
response curve c(f) is that at t =T the value of c(i) is 0.632, or the response c(t) has reached 63.2% of its total change. This may be
easily seen by substituting f = Tin c(t).That is,

Note that the smaller the time constant T, the faster the system response. Another im- portant characteristic of the exponential response
curve is that the slope of the tangent line at f = 0 is 1/T, since

The output would reach the final value at t = T if it maintained its initial speed of re-sponse. From Equation we see that the slope of the

response curve c(t) decreases monotonically from 1/T at f = 0 to zero at f = ∞

The exponential response curve c(t) given by Equation (4-3) is shown in Figure 8. In one time constant, the exponential response curve has
gone from 0 to 63.2% of the fi- nal value. In two time constants, the response reaches 86.5% of the final value. At f =3T, 4T, and 5T, the
response reaches 95%, 98.2%, and 99.3%, respectively, of the final value. Thus, for t ≥ 4T, the response remains within 2% of the final
value. As seen from Equation (4-3), the steady state is reached mathematically only after an infinite time. In practice, however, a reasonable
estimate of the response time is the length of time the response curve needs to reach the 2% line of the final value, or four time constants.
Consider the system shown

To determine experimentally whether or not the system is of first order, plot the , where c(t) is the system output, as a
function of t. If the curve turns out to be a straight line, the system is of first order. The time constant T can be read from the graph as the
time T that satisfies the following equation
 Experiment 1
Objective: To observe the First Order control system for different values of the Damping Ratio at different values of resistance
Equipments Needed:

● Scientech 2454 Control System Simulator

● Patch Cords

● Scientech 803/831, or equivalent

● BNC to Test Probe

● Multimeter
Procedure:
● Connect Square Wave Output to Input of I Order system. The output of the square wave is shown in figure below.
● Make sure that Jumpers are connected in the I Order block

● Connect the Test Probe to the output of I Order Block.

● Change the value of the Potentiometer given in I Order Block. The output of the Ist order system at both extreme ends of
potentiometer is as shown in the figure below
● Observe the change in Damping Ratio of the waveform in output

● At every change at output disconnect the Jumpers by removing the cap and read the value of Potentiometer with the help of
multimeter set at Ohmmeter
Experiment 2
Objective: To observe the Second Order control system for different values of the Damping Ratio at different values of resistance
Equipments Needed:

● Scientech 2454 Control System Simulator

● Patch Cords

● Scientech 803/831, or equivalent

● BNC to Test Probe

● Multimeter
Procedure:
● Connect Square Wave Output to Input of II Order system. The output of the square wave is shown in figure below

● Make sure that Jumpers are connected in the II Order block.

● Connect the Test Probe to the output of II Order Block.

● Change the value of the Potentiometer given in II Order Block. The output of the IInd order system at both extreme ends of
Potentiometer is as shown in the figure below
● Observe the change in Damping Ratio of the waveform in output.

● At every change at output disconnect the Jumpers by removing the cap and read the value of Potentiometer with the help of
multimeter set at Ohmmeter
Experiment 3
Objective: To observe the Third Order control system for different values of the Damping Ratio at different values of resistance
Equipments Needed:

● Scientech 2454 Control System Simulator

● Patch Cords

● Scientech 803/831, or equivalent

● BNC to Test Probe

● Multimeter
Procedure:
● Connect Square Wave Output to Input of III Order system. The output of the square wave is shown in figure below.

● Make sure that Jumpers are connected in the III Order block

● Connect the Test Probe to the output of III Order Block

● Change the value of the Potentiometer given in III Order Block. The output of the IIIrd order system at both extreme ends of
Potentiometer is as shown in the figure below
● Observe the change in Damping Ratio of the waveform in output

● At every change at output disconnect the Jumpers by removing the cap and read the value of Potentiometer with the help of
multimeter set at Ohmmeter