Examination

Control Systems Theory and Design

26.02.2016

Problem 1 (25 Marks)

Hint: Tasks (a) and (b) can be solved independently.

Consider the electromechanical system in Figure 1, which is a simple model of a condenser
microphone.

L R

i
k

m f m

z0
b

z
0
capacitor plates

Figure 1: Simple model of a condenser microphone

a) In order to determine the differential equations that describe the behaviour of the
model in Figure 1 we will look at the electrical and the mechanical subsystems
separately.
Hint: Physical units can be omitted.

L R

vL vR
i vC

Figure 2: Electrical circuit

i) First we consider the electrical part. Determine the differential equation in the
variable q(t) (the charge) that describes the behaviour of the electrical circuit

1
 given in Figure 2. Assume the linearised voltage for the variable capacitor
1
to be vC = (q0 z(t) + z0 q(t)). Thereby, A corresponds to the surface of
A
the capacitor plates,  is the permittivity and z(t) is the position ot the left
capacitor plate. The capacitor plates are precharged with q0 .
Hints: di
vL + vR + vC = 0, vL = L , q̇(t) = i(t).
dt

ii) Now consider the free body diagram of the mechanical part of the system
given in Figure 3 and determine the differential equation. Assume that the
q0 q(t)
electrostatic force is fC = and that the spring is relaxed at z = 0. Use
A
the following relation, the sum of all forces acting in z-direction is equal to mass
times acceleration in z-direction. Weight and friction force can be neglected.

kz

bż m f

fC
z

Figure 3: Free body diagram

iii) Write down the state space representation

ẋ = A x + b u,
(1)
y = cx
 T
with the state vector x = q q̇ z ż of the system. Assume that u(t) = f (t)
and y(t) = i(t).
b) Consider the state space model
   
1 3 1 0 1
0 1 0 0 0
   
ẋ =  x +  u
0 0 0 4 0
   
1 0 2 1 1
 
y= 0 1 0 0 x
Hint: The next two questions can be answered without calculations.
i) Is the system controllable? Give reasons.
ii) Is the system observable? Give reasons.
c) The system matrices A, B, C are available in the workspace of MATLAB. Give
MATLAB code for checking the controllability and observability of the system.

2
Problem 2 (25 Marks)

Hint: Tasks (a) and (b) can be solved independently.

4
K1 = 6 K2 = 20
K3 = 64 • •
3 • × ×

2
K4 = 120
•
1

K5 = 133
Im(s)

0 ◦ ◦ •

−1

−2

−3 × ×

−4
−9 −8 −7 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Re(s)

Figure 4: Symmetric root locus plot. Ki represents the gain at the respective marked
point.

a) For a plant with state space model

ẋ = Ax + bu (2)
y = cx,

a state feedback law is sought, such that the cost function

Z ∞
V = y 2 + ρu2 dt
0

is minimized for any x(0). Let G(s) = c(sI − A)−1 b. The symmetric root locus
technique is to be employed, see Figure 4.

i) Which of the following transfer functions corresponds to G(s) in the symmetric

root locus plot? Give reasons for your choice.
(−s+5)
1) (s2 −2s+10)
5
2) (s2 −2s+10)
5
3) (s2 −2s+10)(s2 +2s+10)
(s+5)(s−5)
4) (s2 −2s+10)(s2 +2s+10)

ii) Find a value of ρ and approximate pole locations (using the points marked in
Figure 4) such that a closed-loop damping ratio of at least ζ = 0.707 and a 1%
settling time of at most ts = 2.3 are achieved, while using the least amount of
control effort possible.
Hint: Use the relationships ts = 4.6
σ
and ζ = sin(θ), where s1,2 = −σ ± jωd is
a dominant pole pair and θ = tan−1 (σ/ωd ).

3
 iii) Give MATLAB code to compute a feedback gain F that fulfills the requirements
in (a.ii). Assume the transfer function G and a vector p containing the poles
from (a.ii) are already in the workspace.

b) Consider a system with two inputs, two outputs and state space realization,

ẋ = Ax + Bu (3)
y = Cx,

where
   
0 1 0 0 0 0  
−a0 −a1 0 0  1 0 1 0 0 0
A=
 0
 B= , C=
0 0 1  0 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 −a2 −a3 0 1

i) What can be said about the interaction between input/output channels?

ii) Assume a state feedback controller is to be designed that tracks step references
and rejects step disturbances using integral action. Sketch the feedback loop
for this configuration.
iii) How many states will be added to the plant while carrying out the design in
(b.ii)?
 
iv) Give MATLAB code to compute a reasonable feedback gain F̄ = F FI for
the design in (b.ii). Assume A, B, C are given in the workspace.
v) The controller will be implemented as in Figure 5. Two PID controller modules
are to be used, each of which implements the ideal PID transfer function

KI,i
KP ID,i = KP,i + + KD,i s, i = 1, 2 (4)
s
Write MATLAB code that assigns the correct values to the parameters KP,1 ,
KI,1 , KD,1 , KP,2 , KI,2 , KD,2 by reading the relevant gains out of the matrix F̄
determined in (b.iv).

y
   
r KP ID,1 (s) 0 G1 (s) 0
− 0 KP ID,2 (s) 0 G2 (s)

Figure 5: Block Diagram of the Closed-loop System

4
Problem 3 (25 Marks)

Consider the MIMO system

Y (s) = G(s)U (s)
, where
 −1 −2 
s+1 s+4
G(s) = 5 . (5)
0 (s+1)2

a) i) Without calculation, how many state variables would you expect a minimal
state space realization to have at least and at most? Explain your answer.
 
1
ii) What constant input u is necessary to obtain a steady state output of y = ?
1

b) Given the following state space realization of the system in (5).

ẋ = Ax + Bu (6)
y = Cx,

where
   
−1 0 0 0 0 1 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 0  
    −1 −4 −2 0 0
A =  0 −8 −6 0
 0 0
B= 1, C=
0
 0 0 0 5 0
0 0 0 1 0 0
0 0 0 −1 −2 0 1
 
sI − A −B
i) For s = −2, the matrix loses rank; what type of zero is {−2}?
C D
ii) Will s = −2 have an effect on the input/output behaviour of the system?
iii) How many transmission zeros does the system have? Explain your answer.
Hint: This can be answered by inspection of the transfer matrix (5).

c) An LQG controller is to be designed for the plant in (6), see Figure 6. Assume a
minimal realization has 4 states.

r e x̂ y
Observer F G(s)
−

K(s)

Figure 6: Feedback loop

5
 i) What are the tuning parameters for K(s). Give reasonable initial values for
them (including dimensions).
ii) How would you change the tuning parameters in (c.i) to reduce the control
effort in the second input channel, keeping the rest (almost) unchanged?
iii) How would you change the tuning parameters in (c.i) to make the second
output less sensitive to noisy measurements?
iv) Give MATLAB code to generate a state space model of the controller K.
Assume A, B, C, F, L are in the workspace.

6
Problem 4 (25 Marks)

Hint: Tasks (a) and (b) can be solved independently.

a) A discrete-time state-space model is given as

" # " #
1 0 1
x(k + 1) = x(k) + u(k),
0.5 0.25 0 (7)
 
y(k) = 1 0 x(k) + u(k).

i) Is the system stable? Give reasons.

ii) Is the system controllable and/or observable? Give reasons.
iii) Calculate the discrete-time transfer function G(z).
iv) Compute the impulse response of G(z) for k = 0, 1, 2, 3 and sketch the response.

b) Consider a plant with the continuous-time transfer function G(s) and its exact zero-
order-hold discretisation Gd (z), where

s+2 z + 2eT − 3
G(s) = , Gd (z) = (8)
s−1 z − eT
and T is the sampling time. This plant is to be controlled by a continuous-time
controller C(s) as shown in Figure 7.

r y
C(s) G(s)
−

Figure 7: Closed-loop system

i) The plant is to be controlled using a continuous-time proportional feedback

controller C(s) = Kp . Sketch the continuous-time root locus.
ii) The plant is to be controlled using a discrete-time proportional feedback con-
troller Cd (z) = Kd and sampling time T = 1. Sketch the discrete-time root
locus.
iii) What can be said about stability of the continuous-time and discrete-time
feedback loops
1. when, the controller gains are small?
2. when, the controller gains are large?
iv) Give MATLAB code for plotting the continuous-time and discrete-time root
locus in two different figures. The workspace is empty.

7
 Solution
Control Systems Theory and Design
26.02.2016

Ohne Gewähr No guarantee

Solution to Problem 1
R 1
a) i) q̈ = − q̇ − (z0 q + q0 z)
L ǫAL
b k q0 1
ii) z̈ = − ż − z − q+ f
m m ǫAm m
iii)
 
  0 1 0 0   0
q̇   q
   z R q0    
  − 0 − − 0  q̇   0
 
q̈  
  
   ǫAL L ǫAL    
 =   +  
 f
ż   0 0 0 1  z   0  
      
      
 q k b  1
z̈ −
0
0 − − ż
ǫAm m m m
 
q
 
q̇ 
 
 
y= 0 1 0 0  
 
z 
 
 
ż

b) i) uncontrollable, since x2 is decoupled

ii) unobservable, since x2 is the only measured state

c)

1 sys = ss(A,B,C,0); % state-space model

2 Ob = obsv(sys); % observability matrix
3 Co = ctrb(sys); % controllability matrix
4 n = length(Ob);
5 rank(Ob) == n % if true, then observable
6 rank(Co) == n % if true, then controllable

1
Solution to Problem 2
a) i) Out of the given options, only 1) is possible. 2) and 3) don’t have a zero. 4)
has 4 poles, the symmetric root locus would have 8, and would look different.
ii) The point on the root locus corresponding to a state fdeedback controller that
achieves the design objectives with the least amount of control effort is at
K2 = 20, therefore, ρ = 1/20. The poles are s1,2 = −3.7 ± 3.3.
iii) [A,b,c,d]=ssdata(G);
F=-lqr(A,b,c’*c,1/20);
%or
F=-place(A,b,p);
b) i) The two input/output channels are decoupled, i.e. this MIMO system consists
of two decoupled SISO systems as can be seen by the 0 blocks in the A matrix
and the structure of the B and C matrices.

r 1 xI u y
s
FI G(s)
−

F x

Figure 1: State feedback loop augmented with an integrator

ii)
iii) 2
iv) n=size(A,1);
ni=size(B,2);
no=size(C,1);
A aug=[A zeros(n,no); -C zeros(no)];
B aug=[B;zeros(no,ni)];
Q=blkdiag(C’*C,eye(no));
R=eye(ni);
F =-lqr(A aug,B aug,Q,R);
v) Note Rthat y1 =R x1 and y2 = x3 ,R x2 = ẋ1 R= ẏ1 and x4 = ẋ3 = ẏ2 ,. Furthermore
x5 = −x1 = −y1 and x6 = −x3 = −y2 . Therefore
K P1=-F (1,1);
K I1=F (1,5);
K D1=-F (1,2);
K P2=-F (2,3);
K I2=F (2,6);
K D2=-F (2,4);

2
Solution to Problem 3
a) i) min 2, max 4. The state space realization must contain at least all different
poles (for the case that the multiplicity of them is 1). The maximum number
would be the case when each partial transfer function is separately converted
to state space and combined.
ii) The steady state gain can be computed as
 
−1 −2/4
G(0) =
0 5

y(∞) = G(0)u
    
1 5 2/4 1 −11/10
u = (G(0)) y = −
−1
=
5 0−1 1 1/5

b) i) It’s an invariant zero.

ii) It wont have an effect on I/O behavior since it is not a transmission zero, i.e.
it doesn’t make G(s) lose rank.
iii) None. From the triangular structure and the fact that the partial transfer
functions on the diagonal have no zeros, it is easy to see that det G(s) is never
zero for any value of s.

c) i) Q = C T C − (4 × 4) R = I2 − (2 × 2) Qe = BB T − (4 × 4) Re = I2 − (2 × 2)
 
1 0
ii) R̃ = R with r2 > 1.
0 r2
 
1 0
iii) R̃e = R with re,2 > 1.
0 re,2 e
iv) K=ss(A+B*F+L*C,-L,F,0)

3
Solution to Problem 4
a) i) marginally stable, λ1 = 1, λ2 = 0.25
ii) controllable (x1 is directly influenced by input, x2 influenced by x1 ), but not
observable (only x1 is measured)
z
iii) G(z) = z−1
iv) The response is {1, 1, 1, 1, . . . }
b) i) see Figure 2
0.4

0.2
Im(s)

−0.2

−0.4

-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5

Re(s)

Figure 2: Continuous-time Root Locus

ii) see Figure 3

1

0.5
Im(s)

−0.5

−1
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Re(s)

Figure 3: Discrete-time Root Locus

iii) controller gains are small: unstable for CT and DT, controller gains are large:
stable for CT, unstable for DT (outside unit disc)
c)

1 G = tf([1,2],[1 -1]); % transfer function

2 T = 1; % sampling time
3 Gd = c2d(G,T,'zoh'); % exact discretization (zero-order hold)
4 figure(1); rlocus(G); % continuous-time root locus
5 figure(2); rlocus(Gd); % discrete-time root locus