Advanced

Instrumentation and Control

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Week 9 Signals and Control Theory

1. Sampling Theorem
The NyquistShannon sampling theorem, which has been named after Harry Nyquist
and Claude Shannon, is a fundamental result in the field of information theory, in
particular telecommunications and signal processing. Sampling is the process of
converting a signal (for example, a function of continuous time or space) into a numeric
sequence (a function of discrete time or space). Shannon's version of the theorem states:
If a function x(t) contains no frequencies higher than B hertz, it is completely determined
by giving its ordinates at a series of points spaced 1/(2B) seconds apart.
The theorem is commonly called the Nyquist sampling theorem; since it was also
discovered independently by E. T. Whittaker, by Vladimir Kotelnikov, and by others, it is
also known as NyquistShannonKotelnikov,WhittakerShannonKotelnikov,
WhittakerNyquistKotelnikovShannon,WKS, etc., sampling theorem, as well as the
Cardinal Theorem of Interpolation Theory. It is often referred to simply as the
sampling theorem.
In essence, the theorem shows that a bandlimited analog signal that has been sampled can
be perfectly reconstructed from an infinite sequence of samples if the sampling rate
exceeds 2B samples per second, where B is the highest frequency in the original signal.

For more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist%E2%80%93Shannon_sampling_theorem
________________________________________________________________

2. Aliasing
In signal processing and related disciplines, aliasing is an effect that causes
different signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another) when
sampled. It also refers to the distortion or artifact that results when the signal
reconstructed from samples is different from the original continuous signal.

Advanced Instrumentation and Control

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Two different sinusoids that fit the same set of samples.

For more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliasing
________________________________________________________________

3. Anti-Aliasing Filter
An anti-aliasing filter is a filter used before a signal sampler, to restrict the
bandwidth of a signal to approximately satisfy the sampling theorem. Since the
theorem states that unambiguous interpretation of the signal from its samples is
possible when the power of frequencies above the Nyquist frequency is zero, a
real anti-aliasing filter can generally not completely satisfy the theorem. A
realizable anti-aliasing filter will typically permit some aliasing to occur; the
amount of aliasing that does occur depends on a design trade-off between
reduction of aliasing and maintaining signal up to the Nyquist frequency and the
frequency content of the input signal.

For more information:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/68F14E8E26B3D101862569350069E0B9
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing_filter
________________________________________________________________

Advanced Instrumentation and Control

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Control Theory
Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics that
deals with the behavior of dynamical systems with inputs, and how their behavior
is modified by feedback. The usual objective of control theory is to control a
system, often called the plant, so its output follows a desired control signal, called
the reference, which may be a fixed or changing value. To do this a controller is
designed, which monitors the output and compares it with the reference. The
difference between actual and desired output, called the error signal, is applied
as feedback to the input of the system, to bring the actual output closer to the
reference. Some topics studied in control theory are stability; whether the output
will converge to the reference value or oscillate about it; controllability and
observability.

The concept of the feedback loop to control the dynamic behavior of the
system: this is negative feedback, because the sensed value is
subtracted from the desired value to create the error signal, which is
amplified by the controller.

Extensive use is usually made of a diagrammatic style known as the block

diagram. The transfer function, also known as the system function or network
function, is a mathematical representation of the relation between the input and
output based on the differential equations describing the system.

Advanced Instrumentation and Control

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Although a major application of control theory is in control systems engineering,
which deals with the design of process control systems for industry, other
applications range far beyond this. As the general theory of feedback systems,
control theory is useful wherever feedback occurs; a few examples are in
physiology, electronics, climate modeling, machine design, ecosystems,
navigation, neural networks, predator-prey interaction, and gene expression.

4.1 SISO vs MIMO

Control systems can be divided into different categories depending on the
number of inputs and outputs

Single-input single-output (SISO) - This is the simplest and most common

type, in which one output is controlled by one control signal. Examples are the
cruise control example above, or an audio system, in which the control input is
the input audio signal and the output is the sound waves from the speaker.
Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) - These are found in more complicated
systems.

4.2 Closed-loop and open-loop controllers:

Closed-loop

controllers

have

the

following

advantages

over

open-loop

controllers:

disturbance rejection (such as hills in the cruise control example above)

guaranteed performance even with model uncertainties, when the model

structure does not match perfectly the real process and the model

Advanced Instrumentation and Control

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

parameters are not exact

unstable processes can be stabilized

reduced sensitivity to parameter variations

improved reference tracking performance

4.3 PID controller

The PID controller is probably the most-used feedback control design. PID is an
initialism for Proportional-Integral-Derivative, referring to the three terms operating on
the error signal to produce a control signal. If u(t) is the control signal sent to the system,
y(t) is the measured output and r(t) is the desired output, and tracking error
, a PID controller has the general form

The desired closed loop dynamics is obtained by adjusting the three parameters
,
and
, often iteratively by "tuning" and without specific knowledge of a plant model.
Stability can often be ensured using only the proportional term. The integral term permits
the rejection of a step disturbance (often a striking specification in process control). The
derivative term is used to provide damping or shaping of the response. PID controllers
are the most well established class of control systems: however, they cannot be used in
several more complicated cases, especially if MIMO systems are considered.
Applying Laplace transformation results in the transformed PID controller equation

with the PID controller transfer function

For practical PID controllers, a pure differentiator is neither physically realisable nor
desirable due to amplification of noise and resonant modes in the system. Therefore a
phase-lead compensator type approach is used instead, or a differentiator with low-pass
roll-off.

Advanced Instrumentation and Control

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_theory
________________________________________________________________

5. Transfer Function

System
H(s)

Input x(t)

For a system, for continuous-time input signal

function

Output y(t)

and output

, the transfer

is the linear mapping of the Laplace transform of the input,

, to the Laplace transform of the output

or

Poles and Zeros

Poles and Zeros of a transfer function are the frequencies for which the value of the
denominator and numerator of transfer function becomes zero respectively. The values of
the poles and the zeros of a system determine whether the system is stable, and how well
the system performs.
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_function
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace_transform

Advanced Instrumentation and Control

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

http://lpsa.swarthmore.edu/LaplaceZTable/LaplacePropTable.html
http://lpsa.swarthmore.edu/LaplaceZTable/LaplaceZFuncTable.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Control_Systems/Poles_and_Zeros
________________________________________________________________

6. The Impulse and Step Responses of a System (This part was not
covered during the lecture due to limited time, it will be covered next
time.)
A time domain description of the relationship between the unit impulse response and
unit step response is given here. To develop this relationship, consider first the unit
step response of a system.

In this diagram the input is the unit step function, (t), and the output is the unit step
response, y(t). So the unit step response, Y(s), is given by

The step response of the system is !! ! = !! {! ! ! }

The impulse response of a system is the inverse Laplace Transform of H(s),

!! ! = !! {! ! }
6.1. The first-order systems

Advanced Instrumentation and Control

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Consider a generic first order transfer function given by

where a, b and c are arbitrary real numbers and either b or c (but not both) may
be zero.
6.2. The second-order systems

Consider the transfer function of the second-order system as

where we have introduced three constants

Note: the term is read as "zeta." Also note that 0 is always a positive number.

For more information:

http://lpsa.swarthmore.edu/Transient/TransInputs/TransImpulse.html
http://lpsa.swarthmore.edu/Transient/TransInputs/TransStep.html
http://lpsa.swarthmore.edu/LaplaceXform/InvLaplace/InvLaplaceXformPFE.html