CONVERTING TRANSFER-FUNCTIONS TO STATE MODELS USING CANONICAL FORMS J E PAKKALA The state variables that produce a state model

are not, in general, unique. However, there exist several common methods of producing state models from transfer functions. Most control theory texts contain developments of a standard form called the control canonical form, see, e.g., [1]. Another is the phase variable canonical form. Control Canonical Form When the order of a transfer functions denominator is higher than the order of its numerator, the transfer function is called strictly proper. Consider the general, strictly proper third-order transfer function Y ( s) b s 2 + b s + b0 = 3 2 2 1 . U ( s ) s + a2 s + a1s + a0 Dividing each term by the highest order of s yields b2 b1 b0 + 2+ 3 Y ( s) s = s s U ( s ) 1 + a2 + a1 + a0 s s 2 s3 (2) (1)

which is a function containing numerous 1/s terms, or integrators. There are various signalflow graph configurations that will produce this function. One possibility is the control canonical form shown in Figure 1. b2 b1 U(s) 1/s X3(s) -a2 -a1 -a0
Figure 1. Control canonical form block diagram.

1/s X2(s)

1/s X1(s)

b0

Y(s)

The state model for the signal flow configuration in Figure 1 is & x1 0 x = 0 & 2 x3 a0 & y = [ b0 b1 1 0 a1 0 x1 0 1 x2 + 0 u a2 x3 1

x1 b2 ] x2 + [ 0] u x3

(3)

The validity of (3) is tested by rearranging (2) to yield 1 1 1 1 1 1 Y ( s ) + a2 Y ( s ) + a1 2 Y ( s ) + a0 3 Y ( s ) = b2 U ( s ) + b 2 U ( s ) + b0 3 U ( s ) 1 s s s s s s (4)

and then substituting the expression for Y(s) from the state model output equation in (3) yields 1 1 1 b0 X 1 ( s ) + b1 X 2 ( s ) + b2 X 3 ( s ) = b2 U ( s ) + b1 2 U ( s ) + b0 3 U ( s ) s s s 1 a2 ( b0 X 1 ( s ) + b1 X 2 ( s ) + b2 X 3 ( s ) ) s 1 a1 2 ( b0 X 1 ( s ) + b1 X 2 ( s ) + b2 X 3 ( s ) ) s 1 a0 3 ( b0 X 1 ( s ) + b1 X 2 ( s ) + b2 X 3 ( s ) ) . s Equation (5) can be rewritten as b2 b1 b0 + + b0 X 1 ( s ) + b1 X 2 ( s ) + b2 X 3 ( s ) ) Y ( s ) ( s s 2 s3 , = = U ( s) U ( s ) 1 + a2 + a1 + a0 s s 2 s3 which is identical to equation (2) proving that the control canonical form is valid. As an example consider the transfer function b2 b1 b0 2 8 6 + 2+ 3 + + C ( s) 2 s 2 + 8s + 6 s s s = s s2 s3 . = = R( s ) s 3 + 8s 2 + 26 s + 6 1 + a2 + a1 + a0 1 + 8 + 26 + 6 s s 2 s3 s s2 s3 The coefficients corresponding with the control canonical form are: b0 = 6, b1 = 8, b2 = 2, a0 = 6, a1 = 26, and a2 = 8 .

(5)

The state model based on control canonical form is & 1 0 x1 0 x1 0 x = 0 & 0 1 x2 + 0 r 2 x3 6 26 8 x3 1 & x1 y = [ 6 8 2] x2 + [0]r. x3 Examination of Figure 1 shows one potential benefit of manipulating systems to conform to control canonical form. If X1(s) happened to carry units of inches (position), then X2(s) might be inches/second (velocity), and X3(s) might be inches/second/second (acceleration).

Phase Variable Canonical Form Development of the phase variable canonical form as presented in [2] begins with the general fourth-order, strictly proper transfer function Y ( s) b s 3 + b s 2 + b s + b0 b s 1 + b s 2 + b s 3 + b s4 = 4 3 3 2 2 1 = 3 1 2 2 1 3 0 4 U ( s ) s + a3s + a2 s + a1 s + a0 1 + a3 s + a2 s + a1 s + a0 s which can be rearranged to read Y ( s ) = b3s 1U( s ) + b2 s 2U( s ) + b1 s3U( s ) + b0 s4U( s ) a3s 1Y ( s ) a2 s2Y ( s ) a1 s3Y ( s ) a0 s4 Y ( s ) (7) (6)

The denominator in (6) is fourth order and leads one to conclude that a block diagram consisting of four 1/s terms may be useful. Construction of the phase variable canonical form is initiated by setting the output to Y ( s ) = b0 s 4U( s ) which may be represented using four integrators as shown in Figure 2. U(s) 1/s 1/s 1/s 1/s b0 Y(s) (8)

Figure 2. Block diagram of the output equation.

After substituting Y(s) from (8) into (7), the expression becomes Y ( s ) = b3s 1U( s ) + b2 s 2U( s ) + b1 s3U( s ) + b0 s4U( s ) a3b0 s 5U( s ) a2 b0 s 6U( s ) a1 b0 s7U( s ) a0 b0 s8U( s ) . (9)

It is left for the reader to show that the additional terms when applied to the block diagram results in Figure 3.8 (b) in [2]. The reader may also wish to examine the similarities between control canonical form and phase variable form. It is important to note that a particular transfer function may be represented by block diagrams of many different canonical forms, yielding many different valid state models. References [1] [2]
Lewis, P., and Yang, C., Basic Control Systems Engineering, Prentice Hall, 1997. Dorf, Richard and Bishop, Robert, Modern Control Systems, 10th Ed., Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2005.