Ingineria Reglarii Automate 2

Introduction to Digital Control

Systems

Dr. Eng. Cristina I. Muresan 1

 Outline
• Introduction
• Advantages/disadvantages of digital
controllers
• From continuous transfer functions to discrete
transfer functions

2
 Introduction
• Why do we study digital control systems?

3
 Introduction
• Why do we study digital control systems?
– Rapid increase in the use of digital controllers due
to the advantage they bring in achieving optimal
performance
– Advanced control methods
– Starting point: digital PID controller
– Availability of low-cost digital computers

4
 Introduction
• Types of signals:
– Continuous time signals: defined over a
continuous range of time
– Analog signals – defined over a continuous range
of time and with amplitudes that may assume a
continuous range of values

5
 Introduction
• Types of signals:
– Quantized signals– defined over a continuous
range of time and with amplitudes that may
assume only a set of distinct values

6
 Introduction
• Types of signals:
– Discrete signals– defined only at discrete instants
of time ( the time is quantized)
– Sampled-data signals – discrete signals that may
assume a continuous range of values

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 Introduction
• Types of signals:
– Discrete signals– defined only at discrete instants
of time ( the time is quantized)
– Digital signals – discrete signals with quantized
amplitudes (generally represented by a sequence
of numbers)

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 Introduction
• Continuous-time control systems
– Signals are continuous in time
– Described by differential equations
• Discrete-time control systems
– Signals are either in sampled-data form or in
digital form and possibly in continuous- time form
– Digital computer – any sampled data must be
converted into digital data
– Described by difference equations
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Block diagram of a digital control system

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Block diagram of a digital control system

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Block diagram of a digital control system

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 Reconstructing the input signal using hold
circuits
• Function of the hold operation: to reconstruct the analog signal
that has been transmitted as a train of pulse samples.
• Hold circuit : designed to extrapolate the output signal between
successive points according to some prescribed manner.
• Hold circuit: zero order hold, higher order hold (first order hold,
second order hold, etc.)
• Zero order hold: simplest way to reconstruct the original input
signal
• Higher order hold: can reconstruct the signal more accurately
than zero order hold, but with some disadvantages

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 Reconstructing the input signal using hold
circuits
• ZOH (zero order hold): maintains the current value of the
sample up to the next sampling period (staircase function).

T 14
 Reconstructing the input signal using hold
circuits
• FOH (first order hold): retains the value of the previous
sample, as well as the present one, and predicts, by
extrapolation, the value of the next sample
It generates an output slope equal to
the slope of a line segment connecting
previous and present samples and projecting
it from the value of the present sample.

15
 Reconstructing the input signal using hold
circuits
• FOH (first order hold): retains the value of the previous
sample, as well as the present one, and predicts, by
extrapolation, the value of the next sample
It generates an output slope equal to
the slope of a line segment connecting
previous and present samples and projecting
it from the value of the present sample.

16
 Reconstructing the input signal using hold
circuits
• FOH (first order hold): retains the value of the previous
sample, as well as the present one, and predicts, by
extrapolation, the value of the next sample
It generates an output slope equal to
the slope of a line segment connecting
previous and present samples and projecting
it from the value of the present sample.

17
 Reconstructing the input signal using hold
circuits
• FOH (first order hold): retains the value of the previous
sample, as well as the present one, and predicts, by
extrapolation, the value of the next sample
It generates an output slope equal to
the slope of a line segment connecting
previous and present samples and projecting
it from the value of the present sample.

18
 Advantages/disadvantages of digital control
systems
Analog control
• Easy to tune, implement
• Components suffer from the aging effect
• of control laws)
Difficult to be modified
• Recommended for simple processes and
non-decision making situations
• Costs increase with computation complexity
Digital control
• Extremely versatile (nonlinear control
algorithms, complex computations, wider class
• Enable the implementation of advanced control
algorithms
• Highly flexible, enabling modifications in a very
simple way (modifying the program)
• High computation speed, high accuracy
• Superior in performance
• Lower cost (usually)
• Components are lightweight, highly reliable,
rugged in construction
• Less sensitive to noise signals
• Problems related to numeric calculus, such as
division by zero
• More difficult to tune
19
 Advantages/disadvantages of digital control
systems
Analog control
• Easy to tune, implement
• Components suffer from the aging effect
• of control laws)
Difficult to be modified
• Recommended for simple processes and
non-decision making situations
• Costs increase with computation complexity
Digital control
• Extremely versatile (nonlinear control
algorithms, complex computations, wider class
• Enable the implementation of advanced control
algorithms
• Highly flexible, enabling modifications in a very
simple way (modifying the program)
• High computation speed, high accuracy
• Superior in performance
• Lower cost (usually)
• Components are lightweight, highly reliable,
rugged in construction
• Less sensitive to noise signals
• Problems related to numeric calculus, such as
division by zero
• More difficult to tune
20
 Design of digital controllers
• Direct methods: in discrete form
• Indirect methods: “via s” methods

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 Design of digital controllers
• Direct methods: in discrete form
• Indirect methods: “via s” methods

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 Design of digital controllers
• Direct methods: in discrete form
• Indirect methods: “via s” methods

Continuous Discrete
transfer function discretization transfer function

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 Towards the Z transform

𝑇
  𝐸 𝑇
  𝐸
Discrete-time control system

Sampler
𝑇
  𝐸

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 Towards the Z transform

  2 3 4 5   2 3 4 5
  q – small compared to

  2 3 4 5   2 3 4 5
The signal r (t) after the sampling operation Signalsignal
Sampled r (t) after
withideal pulses 25
sampling
flat-topped
 The ideal sampling process
• The ideal sampling process can be
considered as the multiplication of a
pulse train with a continuous signal

  2 3 4 5

  2 3 4 5
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 The ideal sampling process

  Infinite series with powers of

Definition of the Z transform

Z transform of r(t), R(z)=Z(R*(s))

Notice that the z-transform consists of an infinite series in the

complex variable z

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 From continuous transfer functions to
discrete transfer functions
• Discretization methods:
– Zero Order Hold (ZOH)
– Euler Forward method
– Euler Backward method
– Tustin (bilinear)

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 From continuous transfer functions to
discrete transfer functions
• Modeling the zero order hold

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 From continuous transfer functions to
discrete transfer functions
• Modeling the zero order hold

Impulse response of ZOH

H(t) is the step function, and

taking the Laplace transform
yields:

  0 𝑇 𝐸 30
 From continuous transfer functions to
discrete transfer functions
•Using
  the zero order hold to obtain discrete
transfer functions:
Process transfer
function is Hf(s)

The discrete equivalent :

31
From continuous transfer functions to
discrete transfer functions

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 Which discretization method should you
choose?
• In general, Tustin’s method is the most accurate of these
discretization methods.
• ZOH is extremely simple to be implemented in practice. It is
assumed that the system has a zero order hold element on the
input side. This is the case when the physical system is
controlled by a computer via a DA converter (digital to analog).
• Tustin’s method with frequency prewarping: This is the
Tustin’s method but with a modification so that the frequency
response of the original continuous-time system and the
resulting discrete-time system have exactly the same
frequency response at one or more specified frequencies.

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