CHAPTER

Introduction to Digital Control

1
OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, the reader will be able to do the following:
1. Explain the reasons for the popularity of digital control systems.
2. Draw a block diagram for digital control of a given analog control system.
3. Explain the structure and components of a typical digital control system.
In most modern engineering systems, it is necessary to control the evolution
with time of one or more of the system variables. Controllers are required to
ensure satisfactory transient and steady-state behavior for these engineering sys-
tems. To guarantee satisfactory performance in the presence of disturbances and
model uncertainty, most controllers in use today employ some form of negative
feedback. A sensor is needed to measure the controlled variable and compare its
behavior to a reference signal. Control action is based on an error signal defined
as the difference between the reference and the actual values.
The controller that manipulates the error signal to determine the desired
control action has classically been an analog system, which includes electrical,
fluid, pneumatic, or mechanical components. These systems all have analog
inputs and outputs (i.e., their input and output signals are defined over a contin-
uous time interval and have values that are defined over a continuous range
of amplitudes). In the past few decades, analog controllers have often been
replaced by digital controllers whose inputs and outputs are defined at discrete
time instances. The digital controllers are in the form of digital circuits, digital
computers, or microprocessors.
Intuitively, one would think that controllers that continuously monitor the
output of a system would be superior to those that base their control on sampled
values of the output. It would seem that control variables (controller outputs) that
change continuously would achieve better control than those that change period-
ically. This is in fact true! Had all other factors been identical for digital and
analog control, analog control would be superior to digital control. What, then,
is the reason behind the change from analog to digital that has occurred over the
past few decades?

Digital Control Engineering, Second Edition.

© 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1
2 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Digital Control

1.1 Why digital control?

Digital control offers distinct advantages over analog control that explain its pop-
ularity. Here are some of its many advantages:
Accuracy. Digital signals are represented in terms of zeros and ones with
typically 12 bits or more to represent a single number. This involves a very
small error as compared to analog signals, where noise and power supply drift
are always present.
Implementation errors. Digital processing of control signals involves
addition and multiplication by stored numerical values. The errors that result
from digital representation and arithmetic are negligible. By contrast, the
processing of analog signals is performed using components such as resistors
and capacitors with actual values that vary significantly from the nominal
design values.
Flexibility. An analog controller is difficult to modify or redesign once
implemented in hardware. A digital controller is implemented in firmware or
software and its modification is possible without a complete replacement of
the original controller. Furthermore, the structure of the digital controller need
not follow one of the simple forms that are typically used in analog control.
More complex controller structures involve a few extra arithmetic operations
and are easily realizable.
Speed. The speed of computer hardware has increased exponentially since the
1980s. This increase in processing speed has made it possible to sample and
process control signals at very high speeds. Because the interval between
samples, the sampling period, can be made very small, digital controllers
achieve performance that is essentially the same as that based on continuous
monitoring of the controlled variable.
Cost. Although the prices of most goods and services have steadily increased,
the cost of digital circuitry continues to decrease. Advances in very large-scale
integration (VLSI) technology have made it possible to manufacture better,
faster, and more reliable integrated circuits and to offer them to the consumer
at a lower price. This has made the use of digital controllers more economical
even for small, low-cost applications.

1.2 The structure of a digital control system

To control a physical system or process using a digital controller, the controller
must receive measurements from the system, process them, and then send control
signals to the actuator that effects the control action. In almost all applications,
both the plant and the actuator are analog systems. This is a situation where the
controller and the controlled do not “speak the same language,” and some form
of translation is required. The translation from controller language (digital) to
 1.3 Examples of digital control systems 3

Reference Controlled
Input Actuator Variable
Computer DAC
and Process

ADC Sensor

FIGURE 1.1
Configuration of a digital control system.

physical process language (analog) is performed by a digital-to-analog converter,

or DAC. The translation from process language to digital controller language
is performed by an analog-to-digital converter, or ADC. A sensor is needed to
monitor the controlled variable for feedback control. The combination of the
elements discussed here in a control loop is shown in Figure 1.1. Variations on
this control configuration are possible. For example, the system could have
several reference inputs and controlled variables, each with a loop similar to
that of Figure 1.1. The system could also include an inner loop with digital
or analog control.

1.3 Examples of digital control systems

In this section, we briefly discuss examples of control systems where digital
implementation is now the norm. There are many other examples of industrial
processes that are digitally controlled, and the reader is encouraged to seek other
examples from the literature.

1.3.1 Closed-loop drug delivery system

Several chronic diseases require the regulation of the patient’s blood levels of a
specific drug or hormone. For example, some diseases involve the failure of the
body’s natural closed-loop control of blood levels of nutrients. Most prominent
among these is the disease diabetes, where the production of the hormone insulin
that controls blood glucose levels is impaired.
To design a closed-loop drug delivery system, a sensor is utilized to measure
the levels of the regulated drug or nutrient in the blood. This measurement is con-
verted to digital form and fed to the control computer, which drives a pump that
injects the drug into the patient’s blood. A block diagram of the drug delivery
system is shown in Figure 1.2. See Carson and Deutsch (1992) for a more detailed
example of a drug delivery system.
4 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Digital Control

Drug Tank

Computer
Regulated
Drug Drug
Pump or Nutrient

Blood
Sensor

(a)

Reference Regulated
Blood Drug
Level Drug or Nutrient
Computer DAC Patient
Pump

Blood
ADC
Sensor
(b)
FIGURE 1.2
Drug delivery digital control system. (a) Schematic of a drug delivery system.
(b) Block diagram of a drug delivery system.

1.3.2 Computer control of an aircraft turbojet engine

To achieve the high performance required for today’s aircraft, turbojet engines
employ sophisticated computer control strategies. A simplified block diagram for
turbojet computer control is shown in Figure 1.3. The control requires feedback
of the engine state (speed, temperature, and pressure), measurements of the aircraft
state (speed and direction), and pilot command.

1.3.3 Control of a robotic manipulator

Robotic manipulators are capable of performing repetitive tasks at speeds and
accuracies that far exceed those of human operators. They are now widely used
in manufacturing processes such as spot welding and painting. To perform their
tasks accurately and reliably, manipulator hand (or end-effector) positions and
velocities are controlled digitally. Each motion or degree of freedom (D.O.F.)
 1.3 Examples of digital control systems 5

(a)

Pilot Aircraft
Command Turbojet State
Computer DAC Aircraft
Engine

Engine Engine
ADC State
Sensors

Aircraft
ADC
Sensors

(b)
FIGURE 1.3
Turbojet engine control system. (a) F-22 military fighter aircraft. (b) Block diagram of an
engine control system.

of the manipulator is positioned using a separate position control system. All the
motions are coordinated by a supervisory computer to achieve the desired speed
and positioning of the end-effector. The computer also provides an interface
between the robot and the operator that allows programming the lower-level con-
trollers and directing their actions. The control algorithms are downloaded from
the supervisory computer to the control computers, which are typically specialized
microprocessors known as digital signal processing (DSP) chips. The DSP chips
execute the control algorithms and provide closed-loop control for the manipula-
tor. A simple robotic manipulator is shown in Figure 1.4a, and a block diagram
of its digital control system is shown in Figure 1.4b. For simplicity, only one
6 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Digital Control

(a)

Reference
Trajectory Supervisory
Computers DAC Manipulator
Computer

ADC Position
Sensors

Velocity
ADC
Sensors

(b)
FIGURE 1.4
Robotic manipulator control system. (a) 3-D.O.F. robotic manipulator. (b) Block diagram
of a manipulator control system.

motion control loop is shown in Figure 1.4, but there are actually n loops for an
n-D.O.F. manipulator.

Resources
Carson, E.R., Deutsch, T., 1992. A spectrum of approaches for controlling diabetes.
Control Syst. Mag. 12 (6), 25
31.
Chen, C.T., 1993. Analog and Digital Control System Design. Saunders
HBJ.
Koivo, A.J., 1989. Fundamentals for Control of Robotic Manipulators. Wiley.
Shaffer, P.L., 1990. A multiprocessor implementation of a real-time control of turbojet
engine. Control Syst. Mag. 10 (4), 38
42.
 Problems 7

PROBLEMS
1.1 A fluid level control system includes a tank, a level sensor, a fluid source,
and an actuator to control fluid inflow. Consult any classical control text1 to
obtain a block diagram of an analog fluid control system. Modify the block
diagram to show how the fluid level could be digitally controlled.
1.2 If the temperature of the fluid in Problem 1.1 is to be regulated together
with its level, modify the analog control system to achieve the additional
control. (Hint: An additional actuator and sensor are needed.) Obtain a
block diagram for the two-input-two-output control system with digital
control.
1.3 Position control servos are discussed extensively in classical control texts.
Draw a block diagram for a direct current motor position control system
after consulting your classical control text. Modify the block diagram to
obtain a digital position control servo.
1.4 Repeat Problem 1.3 for a velocity control servo.
1.5 A ballistic missile (see Figure P1.5) is required to follow a predetermined
flight path by adjusting its angle of attack α (the angle between its axis
and its velocity vector v). The angle of attack is controlled by adjusting the
thrust angle δ (angle between the thrust direction and the axis of the missile).
Draw a block diagram for a digital control system for the angle of attack,
including a gyroscope to measure the angle α and a motor to adjust the thrust
angle δ.

α
Velocity
Vector v

Thrust
Direction
δ

FIGURE P1.5
Missile angle-of-attack control.

1.6 A system is proposed to remotely control a missile from an earth station.

Because of cost and technical constraints, the missile coordinates would be
measured every 20 seconds for a missile speed of up to 0.5 mm/s. Is such a
control scheme feasible? What would the designers need to do to eliminate
potential problems?

1
See, for example, Van deVegte, J., 1994. Feedback Control Systems, Prentice Hall.
8 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Digital Control

1.7 The control of the recording head of a dual actuator hard disk drive (HDD)
requires two types of actuators to achieve the required high real density.
The first is a coarse voice coil motor (VCM) with a large stroke but slow
dynamics, and the second is a fine piezoelectric transducer (PZT) with a
small stroke and fast dynamics. A sensor measures the head position, and
the position error is fed to a separate controller for each actuator. Draw a
block diagram for a dual actuator digital control system for the HDD.2
1.8 In a planar contour tracking task performed by a robot manipulator, the
robot end-effector is required to track the contour of an unknown object
with a given reference tangential velocity and by applying a given force to
the object in the normal direction. For this purpose a force sensor can be
applied on the end-effector, while the end-effector velocity can be deter-
mined by means of the joint velocities. Draw a block diagram of the digital
control system.3
1.9 A typical main irrigation canal consists of several pools separated by gates
that are used for regulating the water distribution from one pool to the next.
In automatically regulated canals, the controlled variables are the water
levels, the manipulated variables are the gate positions, and the fundamental
perturbation variables are the unknown offtake discharges.4 Draw a block
diagram of the control scheme.

2
Ding, J., Marcassa, F., Wu, S.-C., Tomizuka, M., 2006. Multirate control for computational saving,
IEEE Trans. Control Systems Tech. 14 (1), 165
169.
3
Jatta, F., Legnani, G., Visioli, A., Ziliani, G., 2006. On the use of velocity feedback in hybrid
force/velocity control of industrial manipulators, Control Engineering Practice 14, 1045
1055.
4
Feliu-Battle, V., Rivas Perez, R., Sanchez Rodriguez, L., 2007. Fractional robust control of main
irrigation canals with variable dynamic parameters, Control Engineering Practice 15, 673
686.