Basic Theory

The most common control algorithm used in industry and has been universally accepted in
industrial control is Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control. The popularity of PID
controllers can be attributed partly to their robust performance in a wide range of operating
conditions and partly to their functional simplicity, which allows engineers to operate them in
a simple, straightforward manner. As the name suggests, PID algorithm consists of three
basic coefficients; proportional, integral and derivative which are varied to get optimal
response. Closed loop systems, the theory of classical PID and the effects of tuning a closed
loop control system are discussed in this paper. The PID toolset in LabVIEW and the ease of
use of these VIs is also discussed. Proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers are
surely the most adopted controllers in industry because of the cost/benefit ratio they are
capable to provide (note that they are also used in the context of model predictive control,
which usually provide the set-point to low-level PID feedback control loops). Indeed, the
large numbers of tuning rules for their three parameters and the presence of reliable
automatic tuning techniques allow the user to design this kind of controllers with a moderate
effort and to obtain a satisfactory performance for many processes. In the last years, the
design of fractional-order proportionalintegral-derivative (FOPID) controllers has been the
subject of many investigations because of the additional flexibility they are capable to
provide with respect to standard (integer-order) PID controllers. Indeed, the presence of five
parameters to select makes the achievement of an increased performance virtually possible
but this also implies that the tuning of the controller can be much more complex. In order to
address this problem, different methods for the design of a FOPID controller have been
proposed in the literature (where different objective functions are considered) and different
tuning rules have been proposed. Among them, the tuning rules proposed in have very
important features that the provided control action is invariant when the time scale is
changed. PI (proportional– integral) and PID (proportional–integral-derivative) controllers
are widely considered in both industrial and academic environments because of their ease of
implementation and relatively good performance and robustness characteristics. In some
areas of Electrical and Control Engineering, such in the field of power electronics, the design
of a PI/PID is usually performed using the frequency response method by Bode diagrams [1],
specifying a phase margin (γ) and a 0 dB gain crossover frequency (ωG). It is known that the
higher the phase margin, the more dumped the response become. On the other hand, the open
loop 0 dB gain crossover frequency is directly related to the closed-loop bandwidth (ωB).
The speed of response is somehow proportional to ωB and the settling time is inversely
proportional to ωB. However, systems with high bandwidth are more subjected to high
frequency noise. Focusing on improving design aspects in Control Engineering, especially for
power electronics applications, this paper presents a procedure for tuning PI/PID controllers
using Bode diagrams. A practical case considering a shunt active power filter (SAPF), which
represents a good solution to minimize the harmful effects caused by non-linear loads in
power systems [2], is adopted for validating the tuning procedure. A discussion related to
how the grid impedance can influence the filter design and stability is provided. In addition, a
detailed description related to the DC-bus voltage loop modelling of the SPAF is presented.
Simulation and practical results are presented in order to show the effectiveness of the
proposed scheme and its simplicity for being considered in practical cases. Proportional-
integral-derivative (PID) control is widely used in industrial robot manipulators. The
integrator in the PID controller reduces the bandwidth of the closed-loop system, leads to
worse transient performance, and even destroys the stability. Many robot manipulators use
proportionalderivative (PD) control with gravity and friction compensations, and the gravity
and friction models are needed. Intelligent control has dramatically changed the face of
industrial control engineering. The intelligent compensation for PD/PID control has
developed rapidly recently. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, there are
only a few books consisting of the general know-how in designing, implementing, and
operating PD/PID control with intelligent compensations. The second one is in the car where
ascending a hill would lower speed if only constant engine power were applied. The
controller's PID algorithm restores the measured speed to the desired speed with minimal
delay and overshoot by increasing the power output of the engine. The PID control algorithm
is a robust and simple algorithm that is widely used in the industry. The algorithm has
sufficient flexibility to yield excellent results in a wide variety of applications and has been
one of the main reasons for the continued use over the years. NI LabVIEW and NI plug-in
data acquisition devices offer higher accuracy and better performance to make an excellent
PID control system. The balance of these effects is achieved by loop tuning to produce the
optimal control function. The tuning constants are shown below as "K" and must be derived
for each control application, as they depend on the response characteristics of the complete
loop external to the controller. These are dependent on the behavior of the measuring sensor,
the final control element (such as a control valve), any control signal delays and the process
itself. Approximate values of constants can usually be initially entered knowing the type of
application, but they are normally refined, or tuned, by "bumping" the process in practice by
introducing a set point change and observing the system response. The mathematical model
and practical loop above both use a "direct" control action for all the terms, which means an
increasing positive error results in an increasing positive control output for the summed terms
to apply correction. However, the output is called "reverse" acting if it is necessary to apply
negative corrective action. For instance, if the valve in the flow loop was 100–0% valve
opening for 0–100% control output – meaning that the controller action has to be reversed.
Some process control schemes and final control elements require this reverse action. An
example would be a valve for cooling water, where the fail-safe mode, in the case of loss of
signal, would be 100% opening of the valve; therefore 0% controller output needs to cause
100% valve opening. Although a PID controller has three control terms, some applications
need only one or two terms to provide appropriate control. This is achieved by setting the
unused parameters to zero and is called a PI, PD, P or I controller in the absence of the other
control actions. PI controllers are fairly common in applications where derivative action
would be sensitive to measurement noise, but the integral term is often needed for the system
to reach its target value. The use of the PID algorithm does not guarantee optimal control of
the system or its control stability. Situations may occur where there are excessive delays: the
measurement of the process value is delayed, or the control action does not apply quickly
enough. In these cases lead–lag compensation is required to be effective. The response of the
controller can be described in terms of its responsiveness to an error, the degree to which the
system overshoots a set point, and the degree of any system oscillation. But the PID
controller is broadly applicable, since it relies only on the response of the measured process
variable, not on knowledge or a model of the underlying process. The proportional
component depends only on the difference between the set point and the process variable.
This difference is referred to as the Error term. The proportional gain (Kc) determines the
ratio of output response to the error signal. For instance, if the error term has a magnitude of
10, a proportional gain of 5 would produce a proportional response of 50. In general,
increasing the proportional gain will increase the speed of the control system response.
However, if the proportional gain is too large, the process variable will begin to oscillate. If
Kc is increased further, the oscillations will become larger and the system will become
unstable and may even oscillate out of control. The integral component sums the error term
over time. The result is that even a small error term will cause the integral component to
increase slowly. The integral response will continually increase over time unless the error is
zero, so the effect is to drive the Steady-State error to zero. Steady-State error is the final
difference between the process variable and set point. A phenomenon called integral windup
results when integral action saturates a controller without the controller driving the error
signal toward zero. The derivative component causes the output to decrease if the process
variable is increasing rapidly. The derivative response is proportional to the rate of change of
the process variable. Increasing the derivative time (Td) parameter will cause the control
system to react more strongly to changes in the error term and will increase the speed of the
overall control system response. Most practical control systems use very small derivative
time (Td), because the Derivative Response is highly sensitive to noise in the process variable
signal. If the sensor feedback signal is noisy or if the control loop rate is too slow, the
derivative response can make the control system unstable.

Pre-Experiment Task
1. What do you know about the PID controller? Explain it in a concise way!
A PID controller is an instrument that is used to regulate temperature, velocity, flow,
pressure, and another process variable. PID control works much the same way as the cruise
control on a car, the case is like where external influence such a hill would decrease the speed
of the car, the PID algorithm restores from current speed to the set point speed by controlling
the power output of the vehicle engine. PID stands for Proportional, Integral, \Derivative
Control. As its name PID controller combines proportional control with additional integral
and derivative adjustment which helps the unit automatically compensate for change in the
system. Basically PID job is to measure process condition and calculate feedback and adjust
output to force the process level to match the set point. Example : the thermostat that forces
the heating and cooling unit to turn on or off based on the current temperature.

2. What is the application of the PID controller in the real world? Give 3 examples!
Heat treatment of metals, Baking, and Drying/evaporating solvents from painted surfaces

3. What is step response and impulse response?

Step response has an equation g"+Bg'+Cg=𝜹(t). Delta function in the right side is a sudden
force of an impulse at the moment of t that equals of 0. So it will be like g"+Bg'+Cg=0. amd
g is the response.Impulse response is the response of the system when the input signal given
is impulse. While the impulse signal only has a value at one certain time.

4. Why is the PID controller frequently employed to control various kinds of systems?
A closed-loop system like a PID controller includes a feedback control system. This system
evaluates the feedback variable using a fixed point to generate an error signal. Based on that,
it alters the system output. This procedure will continue till the error reaches Zero otherwise
the value of the feedback variable becomes equivalent to a fixed point.. This controller
provides good results as compared with the ON/OFF type controller. In the ON/OFF type
controller, simply two conditions are obtainable to manage the system. Once the process
value is lower than the fixed point, then it will turn ON. Similarly, it will turn OFF once the
value is higher than a fixed value. The output is not stable in this kind of controller and it will
swing frequently in the region of the fixed point. However, this controller is more steady &
accurate as compared to the ON/OFF type controller.

5. The most frequently used methods are trial and error, and Zeigler-Nichols

Trial and Error Method is a simple method of PID controller tuning. While the system or
controller is working, we can tune the controller. In this method, first, we have to set Ki and
Kd values to zero and increase the proportional term (Kp) until the system reaches oscillating
behavior. Once it is oscillating, adjust Ki (Integral term) so that oscillations stop and finally
adjust D to get a fast response.

Next is Zeigler-Nichols method. Zeigler-Nichols proposed closed-loop methods for tuning

the PID controller. Those are the continuous cycling method and damped oscillation method.
Procedures for both methods are the same but oscillation behavior is different. In this, first,
we have to set the p-controller constant, Kp to a particular value while Ki and Kd values are
zero. Proportional gain is increased till the system oscillates at a constant amplitude.Gain at
which system produces constant oscillations is called ultimate gain (Ku) and the period of
oscillations is called the ultimate period (Pc). Once it is reached, we can enter the values of P,
I, and D in the PID controller by Zeigler-Nichols table depending on the controller used like
P, PI or PID
6. What is an underdamped, critically damped, and overdamped system?
A system is called under damped, if the damping ratio (denoted by zeta) is less than 1.  
In this case, C(s)/R(s) can be written :
Here the system oscillates with gradual decrements to zero. i.e automatic door and
window closer is under damped. It will close with considerable velocity or the door will
swing too and fro before closing at its normal positions.
A system is called over damped, if the damping ratio is greater than one, the system
shows tendencies to achieve equilibrium without oscillating. Or you can say it is very
much damping. In this case, the two poles of C(s)/R(s) are negative real and unequal.
For a unit-step input, R(s)=1/s and C(s) can be written : 

A system is called critically damped if the damping ratio for the system is exactly one.
Here system shows the tendencies to come to equilibrium as quickly as possible without
damping. It is the limit if damping ratio is reduced by overshooting this limit then the
system will show oscillating equilibrium. If the two poles of C(s)/R(s) are equal, the
system is said to be a critically damped one. For a unit-step input, R(s)=1/s and C(s) can
be written :