Practice Questions for ECE 380

Question 1
Consider a plant
10
P (s) = .
s2 − 5s − 10
a) Design an implementable (non-ideal) PID controller C(s) so that the system
in standard unity feedback satisfies the following specifications:
(i) settling time of at most 4 seconds,
(ii) a time-to-peak approximately equal to π seconds, and
(iii) step disturbances are rejected.
b) Consider the closed-loop system from part a). Which of the following state-
ments are true?

(i) The closed-loop transfer function from R(s) to Y (s) does not have a zero.
(ii) A ramp disturbance results in non-zero steady-state error.
(iii) The state-space model of the controller is asymptotically stable.
(iv) The closed-loop system is IO-stable.
(v) The closed-loop transfer function from D(s) to E(s) has two zeros at the
origin.

Note: Most of the items for part b) do not require you to do calculations, only
think about the closed-loop system.

Question 2
Consider the plant
s+2
P (s) =
s2 − 1
in unity negative feedback with a controller C(s).
a) Design a controller C(s) so that the closed-loop system tracks step references
perfectly.
b) Suppose now that the plant is
s
P (s) = .
s2 − 1
Can you design a controller C(s) so that the closed-loop system tracks steo
references perfectly? If so, produce the controller. If not, explain why.

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Question 3
Consider the plant
1
P (s) = .
s2 + 2s + 4
Design a non-ideal (implementable) PID compensator C(s) so that the closed-
loop system in standard negative feedback have the following specifications:
• perfectly tracks step references,
• has a settling time faster than 4 seconds, and
• has an overshoot larger than 100e− 2%.

Question 4
Consider the plant
1
P (s) = .
s+3
a) Design a controller C(s) so that the closed-loop system in standard unity
feedback perfectly tracks sinusoidal references of frequency 4 rad s−1 .
b) Consider that we modify the controller C(s) designed in part a) by multiply-
ing it by K > 0. Sketch, by hand, the Nyquist plot.
c) Draw, with MATLAB, the root-locus of the system. Describe how you would
pick the gain K > 0 using the root-locus to improve the response characteristics
of your closed-loop system (For a more challenging problem, sketch the root-
locus by hand).

Question 5
Consider a system in standard unity feedback with
1
G(s) = .
(s2 + 1)2 (s + 1)
a) Sketch the Nyquist contour Γ, and the Nyquist plot of G(s).
b) Determine the number of encirclements for all −1/K in the range −∞ <
−1/K < ∞.
c) Determine the values of −1/K for which the closed-loop system has exactly
two poles with real parts greater, or equal to 0.

Question 6
For the following transfer function
3
G(s) =
(s + 1)4

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determine whether or not the gain margin and phase margin are defined. If
these are defined, then determine the gain and phase margins of G(s).

Question 7
For the uncertain plant

s2 + (4 + q)s + (3 + q)
P (s, q) =
s4 + (3 + q)s3 + (5 + q)s2 + (2 + q)s + 4

with negative unity feedback, where q is a parameter that defines the uncertainty
of the system with uncertainty bound |q| ≤ 1.
a) Find the characteristic polynomial π(s) of the system.
b) Define an auxiliary transfer function Gaux (s) so that we can write the char-
acteristic polynomial as π(s) = 1 + qGaux (s).
c) Sketch, by hand, the Nyquist plot of Gaux (s).
d) Using the Nyquist plot and the uncertainty bound discuss the robustness
of this system. In other words, is this system stable for all values of q in the
uncertainty set?