MEEN 364

R. Langari, 1995. Z. Rhodes, 1999.

C. Smith & W. Choi, 2001. V. Alladi, 2001.
J. Mangan, 2002. A. Rynn, 2002.
J. Mlcak, 2005.
Last Update: 22 August 2006
Lab 13 – Implementation of DC Motor Position Control
Introduction

In general a control problem can be divided into the following steps:

• A set of performance specs is established.

• The performance specs define the control problem.
• Modeling of the system under consideration is carried out.
• If the model is nonlinear or complicated a simplified model of the system is
derived.
• Design of controller to meet the required specifications is carried out.
• The controller is tested on the simplified model (simulations).
• The selected controller is now tested on the more complicated plant model and it
is tweaked if necessary.
• The new controller is implemented on the real-system (hardware).

The last step in a design procedure is implementation.

Objective

The objective of this lab is to implement the controller that was designed in the previous lab.

Lab Procedure

The schematic of the PD controller is shown below.

+ e PD Controller Vin DC Motor

θd θ
_ K(S) = Kp + KdS System Plant

Figure 13-1 – Closed-Loop Block Diagram

1. Create a Simulink/SIT model capable of implementing the position controller
designed in lab 12. Reference the SIT Tutorial.

1
 MEEN 364
R. Langari, 1995. Z. Rhodes, 1999.
C. Smith & W. Choi, 2001. V. Alladi, 2001.
J. Mangan, 2002. A. Rynn, 2002.
J. Mlcak, 2005.
Last Update: 22 August 2006
a) Use Analog Output channel 0 on the DAQ card to output a voltage to the motor.
b) Use Analog Input channel 1 on the DAQ card to input the potentiometer voltage.
c) Values that will be changed are the reference input (angular position) and Kp and
Kd values.
d) Use the potentiometer calibration constant, Kx, obtained in lab 6 to find the
angular position of the load. If you suspect the calibration constant for the
potentiometer has changed since lab 6, recalibrate the potentiometer.
e) Allow the desired angular position of the motor to be controlled by a numerical
control in LabVIEW.
f) Display the angular position using a numerical indicator and a waveform chart.
g) Log the data by saving the angular position measured by the potentiometer vs.
time.
h) Use a simulation step size of 0.01 seconds (a 100 Hz sampling rate). You can
decrease the step size below 0.01 seconds to increase the number of data points in
the transient response of the system (at 100 Hz sampling rate, you would have
only two or three data points given the characteristics of the DC motor, τ ≈ 0.02-
0.03 seconds).

2. Implement the controller.

a) Select two θd values:
i. Choose one value less than 90 degrees.
ii. Choose one value between 90 and 150 degrees.
b) Select four sets of control gains:
i. Use the control gain set determined via open loop controller design in
MATLAB (the set that met the open loop phase and gain margin
requirements).
ii. Use the control gain set that best met specifications in the Simulink
simulation.
iii. Select a control gain set that best meets specifications for the smaller
desired angular position via hardware iteration.
iv. Select a control gain set that best meets specifications for the larger
desired angular position via hardware iteration.
c) Save the response of each trial.
d) Determine the rise time and percent overshoot of each response. Do the responses
meet specifications?
e) The following table may be used to record results.
f) It is best to implement the controller using radians as the unit of angular position.
However, it may be more palpable to input a desired angle in degrees, convert to
radians for the controller and convert the measured angle to degrees for output.
g) NOTE: Make sure that the motor is set to zero degrees before every trial. This
may be accomplished manually or by controlling the motor to a desired position
of 0.

2
 MEEN 364
R. Langari, 1995. Z. Rhodes, 1999.
C. Smith & W. Choi, 2001. V. Alladi, 2001.
J. Mangan, 2002. A. Rynn, 2002.
J. Mlcak, 2005.
Last Update: 22 August 2006
Run Kp Kd θd θss θd-θss Tr PO
[V/rad] [Vs/rad] [rad] [rad] [rad] [s]
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Issues to be addressed in the report

Do the parameters of the controller, namely K p and K d , satisfy the specs when
implemented on the real-world system?

Things you have learned in this lab

Implementation of digital controllers.