COMSATS UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

Lahore Campus: Defense Road, Off Raiwind Road, Lahore

UAN: +92-42-11
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Complex Engineering Problem – Semester Spring 2023

Course Title: Control Systems Course Code: CPE-325 Credit Hours: 4(3,1)
Course Instructor: Dr. Mirza Tariq Hamayun, Dr. M. Program Name: FA20-BCE-A&B
Jawad
Assignment Date Submission Date

Total Marks: 100 Obtained Marks:

Student’s Name: Reg. No.
Note:
• Questions must be solved with complete steps mentioned in the Assignment, no short cut allowed.
• No Assignment will be submitted after the due deadline.
• All copied Assignments (Cheating) will be marked zero.
• Please upload single scanned pdf of your solved answers on your CU online Assign. Submission link
Or in the hard bind form, whichever is appropriate for you.

• The name of the file must be as follows: Example: Assignment-A-Name (FA20-BCE-001

CEP Attributes:
WP1 (WK3, WK4, WK5)
WP3, WP5
PLO4 (C6)

CEP Report Submission Format:

• A soft report in .pdf format is required to submit. Max. Pages Allowed = 30, Min. Page
Allows = 15.
• All required Figures must be plotted by hand first and then generated on MATLAB
to verify your answers and include both in the report, such as root locus and bode
plots.
• Submissions must be clear and legible to facilitate grading. Anything that we cannot read
will not be graded. Be sure to show your work with complete steps (preferably typed,
including equations) and highlight your final answers.
The report must include the following sections:
o Abstract (Max. 200 words summary of your project)
o Introduction (Motivation of application, preliminary problem statement, Research question you
are addressing, a brief literature review of Ball and Beam System Control (a summary of
minimum 10 references and their comparative analysis), preview of your report)
o Explanation of the Tasks and techniques for solving
o Results and discussions (Proper analytical assessment of your answer is required with all steps,
no shortcut allowed)
o Conclusions

Assignment Statement:
A ball is placed on a beam, see Figure.1, where it is allowed to roll with 1 degree of freedom along
the length of the beam. A lever arm is attached to the beam at one end and a servo gear at the other.
As the servo gear turns by an angle 𝜃, the lever changes the angle of the beam by 𝛼. When the
angle is changed from the horizontal position, gravity causes the ball to roll along the beam. A
controller is required to be designed for this system so that the ball's position can be manipulated.

Figure 1: Ball and Beam System

Mathematical Model:
The second derivative of the input angle 𝛼 actually affects the second derivative of 𝑟. However,
we can ignore this contribution. The Lagrangian equation of motion for the ball is then given by
the following:
𝐽
(𝑅2 + 𝑚) 𝑟̈ + 𝑚𝑔𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛼 − 𝑚𝑟𝛼̇ 2 = 0 (1)

Linearization of this equation about the beam angle, 𝛼 = 0, gives us the following linear
approximation of the system:
 𝐽
(𝑅2 + 𝑚) 𝑟̈ + 𝑚𝑔𝛼 = 0 (2)

The equation which relates the beam angle to the angle of the gear can be approximated as linear
by the equation below:
𝑑
𝛼= 𝜃
𝐿

Substituting this into the equation (2), gives

𝐽 𝑑
( 2
+ 𝑚) 𝑟̈ = −𝑚𝑔 θ (3)
𝑅 𝐿

System Parameters:
For this problem, it is assumed that ball rolls without slipping and friction between the beam and
ball is negligible. The constants and variables are defined as follows:
(m) mass of the ball 0.11 kg
(R) radius of the ball 0.015 m
(d) lever arm offset 0.03 m
(g) gravitational acceleration 9.8𝑚/𝑠 2
(L) length of the beam 1.0 m
(J) ball's moment of inertia 9.99𝑒 −6 𝑘𝑔/𝑚2
(r) ball position coordinate
(𝛼) beam angle coordinate
(𝜃) servo gear angle

It should be noted that the above system is a double integrator. As such it is marginally stable and
provides a challenging control problem.
a) Compute the transfer function from the gear angle 𝜃(𝑠) to the ball position 𝑟(𝑠).
b) Design a PID controller to achieve the design criteria of settling time 𝑇𝑠 < 2 𝑠𝑒𝑐 and
overshoot 𝑂𝑆 < 5% when a reference step command of 𝜃(𝑠) = 0.25m is applied.
Note: apply the PID controller on both approximated linear model and nonlinear plant model
and compare the results)
c) It is important to know that the main idea of the root locus design is to estimate the closed-
loop response from the open-loop root locus plot. Investigate the root locus of the open
loop system and see if any region of the plot falls within the design criteria.
d) Design a suitable lead or lag compensator using root locus method to meet the design
criteria.
e) Design a lead or lag compensator using frequency response method to meet the design
criteria and compare the results with part (d).