PHILADELPHIA UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department of Mechatronics Engineering

Automatic control lab

Experiment Name:

Open-Loop Position Control

Experiment # (3)

Submitted by:

Students name ID number

‫عمر بديع فراج‬ 201720114

Submitted to :

Eng. Walaa Sameer Araydah

(Tuesday 8:15 am)

Objectives:
Study open loop controller, to introduce open-loop control, to control the position
of a cylinder rod in the open-loop mode to describe the effect of a load change on
the rod position.

Introduction :

Open-Loop Position Control Systems :

In open-loop control, the controller performs a control action without any feedback from
the response of the system to the control action. The control effort is adjusted by another
system or manually by a human operator.
Open Loop Control
Open loop control strategy supports pre-known results (responses) to the control inputs.
No assessment of the responses and corrections is possible for any internal and/or
external disturbances shown in Fig (1).

Fig (1)

An open-loop position control system is a system in which the position of a cylinder

rod is controlled by a set point only, and no account is taken of the actual rod position
shown in fig (2) .

Fig (2)
 1- The "set point" corresponds to the desired rod position. It may be set manually by
an operator, or set automatically.
2- The "control element" provides the power to the cylinder to counterbalance the
load and to position the rod at a specific distance. In the case of a servo valve of
the pressure type, the power is in the form of an air pressure level.
3- "Disturbances" are varying conditions that cause the cylinder rod position to
differ from the set point.
4- The cylinder rod position is a function of both the air pressure supplied by the
valve, and the disturbance conditions.

Sensing the Position of a Cylinder Rod :

Your trainer comes with a Signal Conditioners module, model 6366, that can be
used to adapt a signal to the requirements of a specific circuit or device. The module
comprises two voltage (E/E) converters that can amplify or reduce the voltage range of
a signal, as well as a frequency-to-voltage(f/E) converter that produces a voltage
proportional to the frequency of a signal.

One of the voltage converters can be used together with the Position Transducer,
model 6395 to sense the position of the cylinder rod. The Position Transducer is of
the cable-extension type. It consists of a flexible cable wound around a cylindrical
spool. The spool is coupled to the shaft of a rotary potentiometer Shown in fig (3).
An internal torsion spring maintains tension on the cable and serves as there traction
mechanism.
In servo control valve can control of pressure and flow by varying the electrical signal.
Shown in fig (3).

Fig (3)
Data:

Table (1)
LOAD in kPa SETPOINT VALUE
280 3.71 V
420 5.6 V
560 7.4 V

600

500

LOAD in kPa
400

300

200

100

0
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

SETPOINT VALUE voltage

Fig (4)

Table (2)
Begin extend 1/2 extend Fully extend
Set point 4.7 5.3 5.7
Position sensor(0-24v) 0.5 6.9 24
Signal (0-10v) 0.2 3 10
Conclusions:
The main difference between open-loop and closed-loop control system is, the
required output within the open loop doesn't depend on the controlled act whereas, in
closed-loop, the required output mainly depends on the controlled act.

The disadvantages of open loop system are:

1- the bandwidth of open loop control system is less.
2- the non-feedback system doesn't facilitate the process of automation.
3- open loop systems are inaccurate in nature and also unreliable

Signal conditioners provide the essential circuitry between the sensor and the data
acquisition system. This circuit ensures proper conditioning of the output before any
further signal processing can occur