COEG 304

Introduction to Process Control: process control; Automatic

process control; Advantages of electronics in measuring systems;
Measurement and process control systems; Analog measuring
system model: temperature control process with analog method;
Digital processing systems: digital supervisory and analog process
control systems, computer based direct digital control
 Process Control
• Control: Restricting something or forcing a
certain variable to have some value within a
certain parameter.
• Process Control System: A key factor in
control engineering is the design of the
process so that it can be controlled well
regardless of external influences
 Introduction
• Process Dynamics:
– Study of the transient behavior of processes

• Process Control
– the use of process dynamics for the improvement of process
operation and performance
or
-theuse of process dynamics to alleviate the effect of undesirable
(unstable) process behaviors
Consider a house in a cold
climate which is to be
maintained near a desired
temperature by circulating
hot water through a heat
exchanger

•Sensor / transducer does the initial measurement

•Temperature of the room is determined by a thermostat
•This temperature is compared with the desired temperature or range of
temperature
•If the temperature is below than the desired temperature, the furnace and the
pump are turned on; if the temperature is above temperature the desired the
furnace and pump are turned off.
 Elements of a simple closed-loop control system.

Let Td=5 deg C

1. If Td<Ta, error signal=negative-- gives zero signal to heater, so heater is in off mode
2. If Td>Ta, error signal= positive--gives signal to heater, so heater is in on mode
3. After running the heater if Ta>Td then heater will be in off mode---this is controlled from
feedback loop
Here we are controlling room temperature Ta, so Ta is controlled variable
 Control System Development
Control development is usually carried out following these important steps

Define Objectives

Develop a process
model
Design controller
based on model
Test by
Simulation

Implement and Tune

Monitor
Performance
Often an iterative process, based on performance we may
decide to retune, redesign or remodel a given control system
 Control System Development
• Objectives
– “What we are trying to control?”

• Process modeling
– “What do we need design?”

• Controller design
– What variables should we measure?
– What variables should we control?
– What is the best controller structure?
 Control System Development
• Implement and tune the controlled process
– Test by simulation
– incorporate control strategy to the process
hardware
• Monitor performance
– periodic retuning and redesign is often necessary
based on sensitivity of process or market
demands
 Control
 A controller is a system designed to regulate a given process
 Controller obeys laws of mathematics and logic (sometimes
intelligent)

Disturbances Process Outputs

Action Observation
intervene Controller monitor

e.g. - Riding a bike (human controller)

- Driving a car
- Automatic control (computer programmed to control)
 Example
• Cruise Control

Friction
Process Speed
Engine

Controller
Human or Computer
 Classical Control
• Control is meant to provide regulation of process outputs about
a reference r, despite inherent disturbances d
d

r e u y
+ Controller Process
-

Classical Feedback Control System

• The deviation of the plant output, e=(r-y), from its intended
reference is used to make appropriate adjustments in the plant
input, u
 Examples
• Driving an automobile
Driver Steering
r e y
+ C A P
-
Automobile
M

Visual and tactile measurement

Actual trajectory
Desired trajectory y
r
 Simplest Types of Feedback Control

• On-Off Control
• This is the simplest form of control.
A robotic arm can be moved and positioned by a control loop. By applying forward and
reverse power to an electric motor to lift and lower the arm, it may be necessary to
allow for the inertial mass of the arm, forces due to gravity, and to correct for external
forces on the arm such as a load to lift or work to be done on an external object.[10]

The sensed position is the process variable (PV). The desired position is called the
setpoint (SP). The input to the process (the electric current in the motor) is the
output from the PID controller. It is called either the manipulated variable (MV)
or the control variable (CV). The difference between the present position and the
setpoint is the error (e), which quantifies whether the arm is too low or too high
and by how much.
By measuring the position (PV), and subtracting it from the setpoint (SP), the error (e) is
found, and from it the controller calculates how much electric current to supply to the
motor (MV). The obvious method is proportional control: the motor current is set in
proportion to the existing error. A more complex control may include another
term: derivative action. This considers the rate of change of error, supplying more or less
electric current depending on how fast the error is approaching zero.
Finally, integral action adds a third term, using the accumulated position error in the past
to detect whether the position of the mechanical arm is settling out too low or too high
and to set the electrical current in relation not only to the error but also the time for
which it has persisted. An alternative formulation of integral action is to change the
electric current in small persistent steps that are proportional to the current error. Over
time the steps accumulate and add up dependent on past errors; this is the discrete-
time equivalent to integration
Applying too much impetus when the error is small and is reducing will lead to overshoot.
After overshooting, if the controller were to apply a large correction in the opposite
direction and repeatedly overshoot the desired position, the output
would oscillate around the setpoint in either a constant, growing, or decaying sinusoid. If
the amplitude of the oscillations increase with time, the system is unstable. If they
decrease, the system is stable. If the oscillations remain at a constant magnitude, the
system is marginally stable.

In the interest of achieving a controlled arrival at the desired position (SP) in a timely
and accurate way, the controlled system needs to be critically damped. A well-tuned
position control system will also apply the necessary currents to the controlled motor
so that the arm pushes and pulls as necessary to resist external forces trying to move
it away from the required position. The setpoint itself may be generated by an
external system, such as a PLC or other computer system, so that it continuously varies
depending on the work that the robotic arm is expected to do. A well-tuned PID
control system will enable the arm to meet these changing requirements to the best
of its capabilities.
If a controller starts from a stable state with zero error (PV = SP), then further
changes by the controller will be in response to changes in other measured or
unmeasured inputs to the process that affect the process, and hence the PV.
Variables that affect the process other than the MV are known as
disturbances. Generally controllers are used to reject disturbances and to
implement setpoint changes. A change in load on the arm constitutes a
disturbance to the robot arm control process.
 Evaluation Criteria
• Evaluate the steady state response
• Evaluate the response to the change in set
point and transient effect
• Ensure Stability
 Control System Evaluation
• 1. How fast the control system responds to the command or
disturbance input (i.e., the bandwidth).

• 2. Whether the closed-loop system is stable; If it is stable, how

much dynamic variation it takes to make the system unstable
(in terms of the gain and phase change in the plant).

• 3. How sensitive the performance (or closed-loop transfer

function) is to the changes in the parameters of the plant
transfer function (described by the sensitivity function).
 Response time of sensor
Sensors do not change output state immediately when an input parameter
change occurs. Rather, it will change to the new state over a period of time,
called the response time (Tr in Figure 5). The response time can be defined as
the time required for a sensor output to change from its previous state to a
final settled value. This concept is somewhat different from the notion of
the time constant (T) of the system. This term can be defined in a manner
similar to that for a capacitor charging through a resistance and is usually less
than the response time.

The curves in Figure 5 show two types of response time. In Figure 5a the
curve represents the response time following an abrupt positive going step-
function change of the input parameter. The form shown in Figure 5b is a
decay time (Td to distinguish from Tr , for they are not always the same) in
response to a negative going step-function change of the input parameter.
 P-only Control

• For an open loop overdamped process as Kp

(Proportional Control )is increased the process
dynamics goes through the following sequence of
behavior
– overdamped
– critically damped
– overshoot
– ringing
– sustained oscillations
– unstable oscillations
Dynamic Changes as Kp is Increased for a open loop
step response with time delay
overdamped Critically damped Overshoot

Time
Time Time

Time Time Time

ringing sustained oscillations unstable oscillations

 Proportional (P) controllers
The control variable is manipulated according to:

u0 is the controller bias

u (t )  u0  K C e(t ) KC is the controller gain

The controller gain can be adjusted (“tuned”) to make the manipulated

variable changes as sensitive as desired to the deviations between set-point
and controlled variable

The sign of KC can be chosen to make the controller output u increase or

decrease as the error increases
 P-only controllers

u(t )  u0  KC e(t )

The bias u0 is the value of the controller output which, in manual mode,
causes the measured process variable to maintain steady state at the design
level of operation
[e (t )=0] when the process disturbances are at their expected values
The bias value is assigned at the controller design level, and remains fixed
once the controller is put in automatic

u  u0  const : at the nominal steady state

 P-only controllers (cont’d)
Flow in
70 L/h
u(t )  u0  KC e(t )
SP

LT
LC Nominal operation:
u must be 60 L/h  if
e = 0 then u0=60 L/h

disturbance
Flow out 60 L/h

10 L/h
If the disturbance changes to 20
Flow in
70 L/h L/h, the steady state is
maintained only if u=50 L/h 
SP
since u0=60 L/h, the error must
LT
LC be 0

disturbance
Flow out 50 L/h

20 L/h
 P-only controllers (cont’d)

u(t )  u0  KC e(t )
What if the disturbance changes during the process?

The manipulated input u must change to guarantee that the process stays at
steady state, i.e.
u  u0

A steady state error e  0 must be enforced by the P-only controller to keep the
process at steady state:

u s.s.  u0  K C e(t )  u0

A P-only controller cannot remove off-set

 Proportional Control (KP)

• A proportional controller
attempts to perform better
than the On-off type by
applying power in proportion
to the error.
• As the gain is increased, the
system responds faster to
changes in set point(reference
temp.,Td=50c) but becomes
progressively underdamped
and eventually unstable.
 Performance of P-only controllers
Response to a disturbance step change
no control
(KC=0) • Whatever the value of K , C
the offset is reduced with
increasing KC respect to open-loop
operation
controlled variable

• Increasing KC :
the offset is reduced
the system may oscillate
the process response is
off-set speeded up
• Although the open-loop
response may be 1st order,
set-point
the closed-loop one is not

time
 Summary for P-only control

 Advantages
– conceptually simple
– easy to tune (a single parameter is needed, KC ; the
bias is determined from steady state information)

 Pitfalls
– cannot remove off-set (off-set is enforced by the
controlled)
 Integral Control
Integrator is included to eliminate offset

– provides reset action

– usually added to a proportional controller to produce a PI controller
• PID controller with derivative action turned off
• PI is the most widely used controller in industry
• optimal structure for first order processes

PI controller form

 1 t 
u( t )  Kc  e( t )   e( ) d   u R
 I 0 
Transfer function model

 1 
U  ( s)  Kc  1   E ( s)
  I s
 PI controllers
P=Proportional , I=Integral

The P controller cannot remove off-set because the only way to change the
controller bias during non-nominal operations is to cause e  0
The rationale behind a PI controller is to set the “actual” bias different from u0
, thus letting the error be zero
The control variable is manipulated according to:

 1
t
 u0 is the controller bias
u (t )  u0  K C  e(t )   e(t ) d t  KC is the controller gain
 I 0  I is the integral time
(also called reset time)
integral action contribution
 PI controllers (cont’d)

 1
t

u (t )  u0  K C  e(t )   e(t ) d t 
 I 0 

Note that until e  0, the manipulated input keeps on changing because of the
presence of the integral term

The change in u (t ) will stop only when e = 0

The integral action can eliminate off-set

 Effect of Variations in Kp

Time Time Time

Effect of Variations in KI

Time Time Time

 Performance of PI controllers
Response to a disturbance step change: effect of KC
open-loop The offset is eliminated
(KC=0)
Increasing KC :
the process response is
speeded up
controlled variable

the system may oscillate

 fixed
increasing KC
CAUTION
For large values
of the controller
gain, the closed-
loop response
set point
may be unstable
time !
 Performance of PI controllers (cont’d)

Response to a disturbance step change: effect of I

Increasing I :
oscillations are dampened
the process response is
controlled variable

KC fixed made more sluggish

increasing I

CAUTION
For small values
of the integral
set point time, the closed-
loop response
may be unstable
!
time
 Summary for PI control
 Advantages
– steady state off-set can be eliminated
– the process response can be considerably speeded
up with respect to open-loop

 Pitfalls
– tuning is harder (two parameters must be
specified, KC and I)
– the process response becomes oscillatory; bad
tuning may even lead to instability
– the integral action may “saturate”
 Proportional, Derivative Control (KP+ KD)

• Although PD control deals neatly with the overshoot and

ringing problems associated with proportional control it does
not cure the problem with the steady-state error.
 PID Control
PID Control Equation

Proportional Derivative
Action Action

 1 t de 
u( t )  Kc  e( t )   e( ) d   D   uR
  I 0 dt 

Integral Controller
Action Bias

PID Controller Parameters

Kc Proportional gain
I Integral Time Constant
D Derivative Time Constant
uR Controller Bias
 PID controllers
P=Proportional , I=Integral , D=Derivative

i) If the error if increasing very rapidly, a large deviation from the setpoint may
arise in a short time
ii) Sluggish processes tend to cycle

The rationale behind derivative action is to anticipate the future behavior of

the error signal by considering its rate of change
The control variable is manipulated according to:

 1
t
d e(t ) 
u (t )  u0  K C  e(t )   e(t ) d t   D 

  I 0 d t 
derivative action contribution
D is called derivative time
 Performance of PID controllers
Response to a disturbance step change

no derivative action Increasing D :

D = 0 the oscillations caused by
the integral action are
increasing D dampened
controlled variable

the process response is

speeded up

CAUTION
Noisy
set-point measurements may
disrupt the
controller
performance !

time
 PID Control (KP+ KI + KD)
• KP and KI have the same general effect as observed for PI
control.
• Derivative action tends (KD = Ds) to reduce the oscillatory
nature of the response and results in faster settling.
 Beware measurement noise !
The derivative action requires derivation of the output measurement y with
respect to time:

d e d( ysp  y )

dt dt
controlled variable If the measured output
is noisy, its time
derivative may be large,
and this causes the
manipulated variable to
time be subject to abrupt
+100% manipulated variable changes  Attenuate
+50% or suppress the
derivative action
0

-50%
-100%
time
 Summary for PID control

 Advantages
– oscillations can be dampened with respect to PI control

 Pitfalls
– tuning is harder than PI (three parameters must be specified, KC , I and
 D)
– the derivative action may amplify measurement noise  potential wear
on the final control element

 Use of derivative action

– avoid using the D action when the controlled variable has a noisy
measure or when the process is not sluggish (  /)  0.5
P P
 Controller selection recommendations
• When steady state offsets can be tolerated, use a P-only
controller (many liquid level loops are on P control)

• When offset cannot be tolerated, use a PI controller (a large

proportion of feedback loops in a typical plant are under PI control)

• When it is important to compensate for some natural

sluggishness in the system, and the process signal are relatively
noise-free, use a PID controller
 Effect of Kp on Closed-Loop 

1.5
Damping Factor (')

overdamped

underdamped
0.5

0
unstable

-0.5
0 2 4 6 8

Kp
 Effect of Kp on Closed-Loop p

0.6
Time Constant ('p )

0.4

0.2

0
0 2 4 6 8

Kp
 PI Control (KP+ KI)

• An integral control (KI = 1/ I s) will have the

effect of eliminating the steady-state error, but
it may make the transient response worse.
• As Kp is increased or KI is increased (i.e., more
aggressive control), the closed loop dynamics
goes through the same sequence of changes
as the P-only controller, but with reduced
error.
 Proportional, Derivative Control (KP+ KD)

• The stability and overshoot problems that arise when a

proportional and PI controller at high gain can be mitigated by
adding a term proportional to the time-derivative of the error
signal.
• The value of the damping can be adjusted to achieve a
critically damped response.
An Example of Too Much Derivative
Action
ys

Time
 The Characteristics of P, I, and D controllers

• A proportional controller (KP) will have the effect of reducing

the rise time and will reduce, but never eliminate, the steady-
state error.
• An integral control (KI) will have the effect of eliminating the
steady-state error, but it may make the transient response
worse.
• A derivative control (KD) will have the effect of increasing the
stability of the system, reducing the overshoot, and improving
the transient response
Proportional Control
By only employing proportional control, a steady state error occurs.
Proportional and Integral Control
The response becomes more oscillatory and needs longer to settle, the
error disappears.
Proportional and Derivative Control
The response becomes less oscillatory and settle fast, but the steady
state error remains.
Proportional, Integral and Derivative Control
All design specifications can be reached.
 Open-Loop Control - Example
1
G( s )
2
s  10s  20

t=0:0.2:2;
num=1;
den=[1 10 20];
step(num,den,t)
 Proportional Control - Example
The proportional controller (Kp) reduces the rise time, increases the overshoot, and
reduces the steady-state error.

MATLAB Example Kp
T( s )
2
s  10 s  ( 20  Kp )
Step Response
From: U(1)
1.4

Kp=300; 1.2
Step Response
From: U(1)
1

num=[Kp]; 1
0.9
Amplitude

0.8
To: Y(1)

0.8
den=[1 10 20+Kp]; 0.6 0.7

0.6
t=0:0.2:2;
Amplitude
0.4

To: Y(1)
0.5

0.2 Kp=300 Kp=100

step(num,den,t)
0.4

0 0.3
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
0.2
Time (sec.)

0.1

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

Time (sec.)