54

CHAPTER 4

STATE FEEDBACK AND OUTPUT FEEDBACK

CONTROLLERS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

In control theory, a controller is a device which monitors and

affects the operational conditions of a given dynamic system. The operational
conditions are referred to as output variables of the system which can be
affected by adjusting certain input variable. The desired output of a system is
called the reference. When one or more output variables of a system need to
follow a certain reference over time, a controller manipulates the inputs to a
system to obtain the desired effect on the output of the system. Control
systems are designed to perform specific tasks. The requirements imposed are
usually called performance specifications. The specifications may be transient
response requirement (maximum overshoot, settling time) and steady state
requirements (steady state error).

Figure 4.1 Block diagram for control system

 55

In Figure 4.1, block diagram for control system is shown. The two
fundamental concepts of control systems are controllability and observability.
Controllability deals with the problem of whether it is possible to move a
system from a given initial state to an arbitrary state. If a system is said to be
controllable, it is possible to transfer the system from any initial state to any
other state in a finite number of sampling periods by means of the unbounded
control vector. Thus the concept of controllability is concerned with the
existence of a control vector that can cause the system state to reach some
arbitrary state. If any state variable is independent of the control signal, then it
is impossible to control this state variable and therefore the system is
uncontrollable. The solution to an optimal control problem may not exist if
the system considered is not controllable. Observability deals with the
problem of determining the state of a dynamic system from observations of
the output and control vectors in a finite number of sampling periods. If a
system is said to be observable, it is possible to determine the initial state
from the observation of the output and the control vectors over a finite
number of sampling periods. The concept of observability is useful in solving
the problem of reconstructing unmeasured state variables.

4.2 REVIEW ON STATE FEEDBACK CONTROLLER

The main design approach for systems described in state space

form is the use of state feedback. In state feedback controller, the states of the
system are considered. The control signal is determined by an instantaneous
state. Such a scheme is called state feedback. State feedback control can be
realized by two methods.

1. Pole placement technique.

2. Linear Quadratic Regulator .
 56

4.2.1 Pole placement Technique

Pole placement is a method employed in feedback control system to

place the closed-loop poles of a plant in pre-determined locations. Placing
poles is desirable because the location of the poles corresponds directly to the
Eigen values of the system which controls the behavior of the system.
Assume that all state variables are measurable and available for feedback. In
this technique, if the system is completely state controllable, then the desired
poles are chosen by means of state-feedback through an appropriate state
feedback gain matrix. This technique ensures both transient and frequency
response requirements and also the steady-state requirements. In conventional
design approach, only the dominant closed loop poles are specified whereas
pole-placement approach specifies all closed-loop poles. Since it specifies all
closed-loop poles, all state variables can be measured or else state observer is
needed to estimate the states. There are three methods to determine the
required state feedback gain matrix

1. Transformation matrix method

2. Direct substitution method
3. Ackermann’s method

Figure 4.2 State feedback control system

 57

The gain matrix is not unique for a given system but depends on the
desired closed-loop pole locations selected, which determines the speed and
damping of the response. The selection of the desired closed-loop poles or the
desired characteristic equation is a compromise between the rapidity of the
response of the error vector and the sensitivity to disturbances and
measurement noises. A State feedback controller is shown in Figure 4.2.

4.2.2 State Observer

In pole placement technique, an assumption is made that all state

variables are available for feedback to design the control system. In practice,
all states are not available for measurement. So the unmeasured states are
estimated by designing an observer or estimator. A device that estimates or
observes the states is known as state observer.

r u x y
Kr H Z-1 C

Process G

L
ŷ

x̂
H Z-1 -C

Observer

-K

Figure 4.3 Observer based State feedback control system

 58

A state observer as in Figure 4.3 estimates the state variables based

on the measurement of the outputs and the control variables and it should be
designed only if the observability conditions are satisfied.

4.2.3 Effects of the Addition of an Observer to State Feedback

In the pole placement design process, it is assumed that the actual

state is available for feedback. In practice, the actual state may not be
measurable, so it is necessary to design a state observer. Therefore the design
process involves a two stage process. First stage includes determination of the
feedback gain matrix to yield the desired characteristic equation and the
second stage involves the determination of the observer gain matrix to yield
the desired observer characteristic equation. The closed loop poles of the
observed-state feedback control system consist of the poles due to the pole-
placement design and the poles due to the observer design. If the order of the
plant is n, then the observer is also nth order and the resulting characteristic
equation for the entire closed-loop system becomes the order of 2n. The
desired closed-loop poles to be generated by state feedback are chosen in such
a way that the system satisfies the performance requirements. The poles of the
observer are usually chosen so that the observer response is much faster than
system response. A rule of thumb is to choose an observer response at least
two to five times faster than system response. The maximum speed of the
observer is limited only by the noise and sensitivity problem involved in the
control system. Since the observer poles are placed left of the desired closed-
loop poles in the pole placement process, the closed loop poles will dominate
the response.

4.3 MULTIRATE OUTPUT FEEDBACK (MROF)

If the states are available for measurement state feedback provides

a simplest way of designing a controller. Some times the state feedback
 59

becomes inevitable due to incomplete state information. In reality most of the

states are observable but they are immeasurable. So it is essential to find a
controller based on the system output which is always measurable. The state
feedback control law requires the design of state observer i.e. the dynamic
compensators. This increases the implementation cost and reduces the
reliability of the control system. More over in observer based design , even
slight variation of the model parameters from their nominal value may result
insignificant degradation of closed loop stability. The other problem with
observer based controller is that the state feedback and state estimation cannot
be separated in face of uncertainty (Werner and Furuta 1995b).

Assuming that a simultaneously stabilizing state feedback gain has

been found, it is possible to use an algorithm to search for a simultaneously
stabilizing full order observer gain, but this depends on the state feedback
gain previously obtained. Instead of searching for the dynamic compensator
parameters, the problem can be transformed into an equivalent static output
feedback problem. Hence it is desirable to go for an output feedback design.

The static output feedback problem is the most important open

question in control theory (Kimura 1994). It is not appreciated for single input
system as it is essential to match the number of inputs to the number of poles
of the system i.e. it needs n-outputs to assign all the n-poles of the system. So
the static output feedback has no real significance. As in most cases the
number of outputs is less than the system order, the static output feedback
would not be a correct option for single input single output system. The static
output feedback is one of the most investigated problems in control theory. It
is the simplest closed loop control but it will not guarantee the closed loop
stability (Syrmos et al 1997). Jinhui Zhang and Yuanqing Xia (2010) states
that static output feedback controller have less computational and hardware
overheads than an observer based approach.
 60

Hence the dynamic output feedback comes into picture. In dynamic

output feedback, the feedback function is a transfer function rather than a
constant vector. In this both, the poles and zeros of the systems are matched
using a dynamic compensator. The order of the dynamic compensator would
be very large. If the system has n-poles and m-zeros, the compensator would
be of the order (m+n). Moreover since the emphasis here is on pole
placement, the dynamic output feedback method used should place 2n-poles
of the closed loop system. The dynamic output feedback involves more
dynamics and complex design.

External Input

Plant
E

x x y
B C

Z-1 []

Unit Delay Output Stacker

State
Computation

Control Input
Controller

Figure 4.4 Block Diagram for Fast Output Sampling Controller

In recent past, multirate output feedback controllers were applied

for large scale systems and systems with incomplete state information.
Multirate controllers can outperform single rate linear time invariant
controllers due to their time varying nature. If the digital controller is so
 61

designed that the control signal and sensor output are sampled at different
rates, then such a control is called as multirate control (Kranc 1957). To
assure the stability and performance, the multirate output feedback is
introduced which also maintains the simplicity of the static output feedback.
Multirate output feedback technique is different from the observer based
technique in the sense that the system states are computed exactly just after
one sampling interval as opposed to infinite time taken by an observer.
Further the time delay required for control law implementation is avoided as
present outputs or control inputs are used to compute the states. In case of
multirate output feedback the error between the computed state and the actual
state of the system goes to zero once a multirate sampled measurement is
available, where as in observer, the error between the estimated and actual
system state goes to zero only at infinite time (Datatreya Reddy et al 2007). In
Multirate output feedback, the system output and the control input are
sampled at a rate faster than the other and only the system outputs and past
control inputs are used to compute the control input. An attractive feature of
MROF controller is that they allow a simultaneous design for a family of
models. Multirate output feedback can be realized using Fast Output
Sampling (FOS) or by Periodic Output Feedback (POF). Block diagram for
FOS controller is shown in Figure 4.4. In fast output sampling, the system
output is sampled faster than the control input and vice versa in periodic
output feedback.

For any controllable and observable system, it is possible to realize

the performance of a state feedback controller by using only the system output
with multirate output feedback (Bandyopadhyay et al 2006). Unlike the static
output feedback, fast output sampling feedback always guarantees the
stability of the closed loop system (Sharma et al 2003).
 62

Patient’s tolerance considerations, limit the number of

thermocouples that can be inserted into the body. So hyperthermia system is a
system with incomplete state information, this demands the need for estimator
design. Hence it is rather desirable to go for an output feedback design. The
output feedback needs only the measurement of system output unlike the state
feedback which requires the knowledge of the states or a state estimator.

This chapter summarizes the merits and demerits of state feedback

and output feedback controller .This also gives information on effect of
adding an observer to a system. Finally it presents the advantages of multirate
output feedback controller and justifies the need for using multirate output
feedback controller for hyperthermia system.