EE361- Feedback Control Systems

Homework # 3
Due date: Wednesday March. 09, 2022

1. A drug taken orally is ingested at a rate r. The mass of the drug in the gastrointestinal tract is denoted
by m1 and the blood stream by m2 . The rate of change of the mass of the drug in the gastrointestinal
tract is equal to the rate at which the drug is ingested minus the rate at which the drug enters the
bloodstream, a rate that is taken to be proportional to the mass present. The rate of change of the
mass in the bloodstream is proportional to the amount coming from the gastrointestinal tract minus
the rate at which mass is lost by metabolism, which is proportional to the mass present in the blood.
Develop a state space represent of this system. (10 marks, CLO2)

2. Consider the restaurant plate dispenser shown below, which consists of a vertical stack of dishes
supported by a compressed spring. As each plate is removed, the reduced weight on the dispenser
causes the remaining plates to rise. Assume that the mass of the system minus the top plate is M , the
viscous friction between the piston and the sides of the cylinder is fv , the spring constant is K, and the
weight of a single plate is WD . Find the transfer function, Y (s)/F (s), where F (s) is the step reduction
in force felt when the top plate is removed, and Y (s) is the vertical displacement of the dispenser in
an upward direction.(10 marks, CLO2)

3. State space representations are in general not unique. One system can be represented in several possible
ways. For example, consider the following systems (10 marks, CLO2)

             
ẋ1 −5 0 x1 3 ẋ1 −5 0 x1 3
= + u = + u
ẋ2 0 −1 x2 1 ẋ2 0 −1 x2 0
   
  x1   x1
y= 7 0 y= 7 3
x2 x2

Show that these systems will result in the same transfer function.
4. An EE student desires to maintain a performance of W (s) throughout the semester. However, the
actual output/performance of the student is F (s), which is way lower than the desired performance.
A major factor contributing to this deteriorating performance is on-campus parties, which are repre-
sented by P (s). Worried about the grades, the student finally approaches you, the cool student with
connections to both party and work, and asks for your help in getting ”decoupled” from P (s). Can
you help the student?

Hint: You, need to help in designing the transfer function U (s), which is the student schedule, such
that P (s) does not affect the relationship between W (s) and F (s). (10 marks)

5. Suppose you are to design a unity feedback controller for a first order plant depicted in Fig. 1. The
objective is to design the controller so that the closed loop poles lie within the shaded region shown in
the figure. (10 marks, CLO3)
(a) What are the values of ωn and ζ corresponding to the shaded region. (A simple estimate from
the figure will be sufficient.)
(b) Let kα = α = 2. Find values of K and KI so that the poles of the closed loop system lie within
the shaded region.
(c) Show that no matter what the values of Kα and α are, the controller provides enough flexibility
to place the poles anywhere in the complex (left-half) plane.

6. Consider the system shown in Fig. 2, where (10 marks, CLO3)

1 K(s + z)
G(s) = and D(s) = .
s(s + 3) s+p

Find K, z, and p so that the closed-loop systems has a 10% overshoot to a step input and a settling
time of 1.5 sec (1% criterion).
Figure 1: Figure for Problem 5: Unity feedback system and desired closed loop pole locations

Figure 2: Figure for problem 6