Control Systems
Part 6: Classical PID Control
Learning objectives
To state the definition of PID controllers
To learn different forms of controller structures
To learn different tuning techniques for PID
controllers
To understand the effect of each controller
parameter on the system responses.
PID controllers
PID stands for: P (Proportional)
I (Integral)
D (Derivative)
Historical note
The first application of PID controller was in 1922 by
Minorsky on ship steering.
Minorsky (1922) “Directional stability of automatically
steered bodies”, J. Am. Soc. Naval Eng., 34, p.284.
This was the first mathematical treatment of the type of
controller that is now used to control almost all
industrial processes.
The current situation
Despite the abundance of sophisticated tools, including advanced
controller design techniques, PID controllers are still the most
widely used controller structure in modern industry, controlling
more that 95% of closed-loop industrial processes.
Different PID controllers differ in the way how their parameters be
tuned, manually, or automatically.
Most of the DCS systems have built-in routines to perform auto-
tuning of PID controllers based on the loop characteristics. They
are often called: auto-tuners.
PID structure
Consider the simple SISO control loop shown below
C(s) is the
controller
PID structures
Standard PID controllers have the following structures:
Proportional only:
Proportional plus Integral:
Proportional plus derivative:
Proportional, integral and
derivative:
PID structures
An alternative series form is:
Yet another alternative form is the, so called,
parallel form:
Tuning techniques for PID controllers
Because of their widespread use in practice, we
present below several methods for tuning PID
controllers. Actually these methods are quite old
and date back to the 1950’s. Nonetheless, they
remain in widespread use today.
Ziegler-Nichols Oscillation Method
Ziegler-Nichols Reaction Curve Method
Cohen-Coon Reaction Curve Method
Ziegler-Nichols (Z-N) Oscillation Method
This procedure is only valid for open loop stable
plants and it is carried out through the following
steps
Set the true plant under proportional control,
with a very small gain.
Increase the gain until the loop starts
oscillating. Note that linear oscillation is
required and that it should be detected at the
controller output.
Ziegler-Nichols (Z-N) Oscillation Method
Record the controller critical gain Kp = Kc and
the oscillation period of the controller output, Pc.
Adjust the controller parameters according to the
following table.
PID Tuning Example
Consider a plant with a model given by
Find the parameters of a PID controller using the
Z-N oscillation method. Obtain a graph of the
response to a unit step input reference and to a
unit step input disturbance.
Solution
Applying the procedure outlined before, we have
Kc = 8 and ωc = 3.
Hence, from the Table, it follows that
The closed loop response to a unit step in the reference
at t = 0 and a unit step disturbance at t = 10 are
shown next.
Step response of PID controlled system
Reaction Curve Based Methods
The PID Controller parameters can also be determined
by performing a open-loop step test detailed as follows:
1. With the plant in open loop, take the plant manually
to a normal operating point. Say that the plant
output settles at y(t) = y0 for a constant plant input
u(t) = u0.
2. At an initial time, t0, apply a step change to the
plant input, from u0 to u (this should be in the range
of 10 to 20% of full scale).
Reaction Curve Based Methods (Cont)
3.Record the plant output until it settles to the
new operating point. This curve is known as
the process reaction curve.
4.Compute the following parameters
Reaction Curve Based Methods (Cont)
Based on the parameters recorded in the reaction
curve, the parameters of the OID controller can be
calculated as shown in the table on next page.
where m.s.t. stands for maximum slope tangent.
Reaction Curve Based Methods (Cont)
Lead-lag Compensators
Closely related to PID control is the idea of lead-lag
compensation. The transfer function of these
compensators is of the form:
If 1 > 2, then this is a lead network and when 1 < 2,
this is a lag network.
Frequency response of a lead-lag compensator
We see from the previous slide that the lead-lag
compensator gives phase advance at = 1/1
without an increase in gain. Thus it plays a role
similar to derivative action in PID.
Frequency response of a lag-lead compensator
We see from the previous slide that the lag-lead
compensator gives low frequency gain increase.
Thus it plays a role similar to integral action in PID.
Summary
PI and PID controllers are widely used in
industrial control.
From a modern perspective, a PID controller is
simply a controller of (up to second order)
containing an integrator. Historically, however,
PID controllers were tuned in terms of their P, I
and D terms.
It has been empirically found that the PID
structure often has sufficient flexibility to yield
excellent results in many applications.
Summary
The basic term is the proportional term, P,
which causes a corrective control actuation
proportional to the error.
The integral term, I gives a correction
proportional to the integral of the error. This has
the positive feature of ultimately ensuring that
sufficient control effort is applied to reduce the
tracking error to zero. However, integral action
tends to have a destabilizing effect due to the
increased phase delay.
Summary
The derivative term, D, provides a predictive
capability yielding a control action proportional to
the rate of change of the error. This tends to
have a stabilizing effect but often leads to large
control movements.
Various empirical tuning methods can be used to
determine the PID parameters for a given
application. They should be considered as a first
guess in a search procedure.
Summary
Attention should also be paid to the PID structure.
Systematic model-based procedures for PID
controllers will be covered in later chapters.
A controller structure that is closely related to PID
is a lead-lag network. The lead component acts
like D and the lag acts like I.
