LAB 3

Report Due Wednesday September 21

Sept. 9, 2016

ENGR 446-02 and ENGR 446-03 Control Systems Lab (Fall 2016)

Page 1 of 3

Lab 3 - Effect of Controller Gain on Open- and Closed-loop Responses

The objective of this lab is to let you acquire a feel for the effect of the controller gain on some important system
characteristics, not only in the time-domain but also in the frequency domain. For our plant, we will use a third-order
system. The plant transfer function is:
2 ( + 1)
()

=
( + 1)( 2 + 2 + 2 )
where = 3, = 3, = 0.5 and = 10 rad/sec. A sample application could be the position control of a DC
motor with time delay in the position sensor (shaft encoder output).

Assignment
The controller is a simple gain, , in the forward path, upstream of the plant in an open-loop control system (i.e.
no feedback). For the range of controller gain given below, plot the unit step-responses of the open-loop system.
Then close the loop around the system with a unit negative feedback loop, and obtain the unit step response of
the closed loop system for the range of controller gains indicated below.
= 0.2, 0.5, 1, 10
Note: Plot all the step-responses on the same plot, as this is advantageous for your analysis. Use MATLAB Control
System Toolbox commands such as tf and step, instead of using Simulink.
For the given controller gains, determine the values of the following step-response characteristics of both the open
and closed-loop systems from the simulated step-response data: steady-state error, rise time, peak time, and peak
overshoot and settling time (5%). Prepare a table containing the observed values (may use stepinfo command).
For Cloed Loop = 10 case only: measure and report these values directly from the plot using the data tip feature
of MATLAB figure and mention in report.
It is best to write the commands in an m-file for easy editing and debugging.

Report (Due Wed. Sept. 21, 11:59 pm)

Your report should be in the form of a brief technical memo stating the effect of controller gain on the open-loop and
closed-loop response characteristics. Be sure to make observations, for example, How does control gain affect
steady-state error in a closed-loop system? and how is this different than the effect on open-loop systems?.
Attachments containing the various plots should be properly labeled and referenced. Upload your report in pdf format
before 11:59 pm on the due date; please mention your name and lab number in the filename.
Your report should include the following:
(1) Introduction (half a page).
(2) Problem definition (half a page).
(3) A brief explanation of the experiments (1 page).
(4) Models/calculations/simulation results, dont forget the table underlined above. Make sure your plots
are clear and readable to support your arguments (2 pages).
(5) Conclusions (half a page). Give a brief discussion of your important observations and explanations.
(6) List of references if any (1 page).

LAB 3
Report Due Wednesday September 21
Sept. 9, 2016

ENGR 446-02 and ENGR 446-03 Control Systems Lab (Fall 2016)

Page 2 of 3

(7) Appendix: Print out of your m-file; please include your name and brief description of what the
commands do as comments. The appendix should also include other supplementary materials as you
see relevant.

Comments
1. Definitions of the rise time, peak time ( ), peak overshoot, settling time, etc.: Nises textbook 7th ed.
section 4. 6 pp 173-6.
2. For definition of steady state error, see figure 5-5 shown below, also Nises textbook chapter 7.
3. The transfer function may be defined as in LAB 2: s = tf(s); define G as given on page 1
followed by step(G). You may use feedback() command to close the loop (type help
feedback for usage). in the above may be stored in an array and refered to in a for loop (as in
LAB 2).
4. To do multiple plots in a figure use hold in MATLAB. Alternatively, store step(..) outputs in arrays
and plot the saved results later. Type help step and help plot in MATLAB for details.

Figure 5-2: Step Response Parameters (Golnaraghi & Kuo p. 257.)

Step Input of
Magnitude

Steady State
Error

Figure 5-5: Steady State Error (Golnaraghi & Kuo p. 262.)

2

LAB 3
Report Due Wednesday September 21
Sept. 9, 2016

ENGR 446-02 and ENGR 446-03 Control Systems Lab (Fall 2016)

Page 3 of 3

Sample Code
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%

Lab 3 Sample Code

WARNING: You need more plots to make proper observations and conclusions. You
would need to change simulation end time and simulation resolution to obtain
the desired results.
MAKE SURE you have a legend (key) or text arrows showing what each plot is when
you have multiple plots in one figure.
All Plots must have titles and x y labels; may use title, legend, xlabel, ylabel
etc. commands as in Lab 2.

s = tf('s')
Gp = 3 * 100 * (s + 1) / (3*s + 1) / (s^2 + 10*s + 100)
Kc = [0.2, 0.5, 1, 10]
% Open Loop
figure(1)
hold
for n = 1:4
% Plot the step response; end time = 20 sec.; change end time as you see fit:
step(Kc(n) * Gp, 0:.01:20)
% Generate data used by stepinfo command; set simulation end time > 20:
[Y,T] = step(Kc(n) * Gp,0:.0001:20); % Simulation resolution is 0.0001 sec.
stepinfo(Y,T)

% Explore this command, type: help stepinfo

end
hold
% Closed Loop
figure(2)
hold
for n = 1:4
% Plot the step response; end time = 8 sec.; change as necessary:
step(feedback(Kc(n) * Gp, 1),0:.0001:8)
% Generate data used by stepinfo command; set end time > 20:
[Y,T] = step(feedback(Kc(n) * Gp, 1),0:.0001:20);
stepinfo(Y,T)

% Explore this command, type: help stepinfo

end
hold
% You may also explore settlingtime(Y,T,5); type help settlingtime.