Automatic Controllers

• An automatic controller compares the actual value of

the plant output with the desired value, determines
the deviation, and produces a control signal which
will reduce the deviation to zero or a small
acceptable value. The manner in which the control
signal is produced is called the control action. The
basic control actions are:
1. Two – position or On – Off control action
2. Proportional control action
3. Integral control action
4. Derivative control action
5. Proportional – plus – Integral control action
6. Proportional – plus – Derivative control action
7. Proportional – plus – Integral – plus - Derivative
control action
• Most industrial automatic controllers use electricity
or pressurised fluid such as oil or air etc. They may
also be classified according to the kind of power
employed in the operation. Such as pneumatic,
hydraulic, electrical, electronic etc.
Elements of industrial automatic controllers:
An automatic controller must detect the actuating
error signal, which is usually at a very low power
level, and amplify it to a sufficiently high level.
Thus, an amplifier is necessary. The output is then
fed to an actuator, such as a pneumatic or
hydraulic valve or an electric motor. Actuator
controls the input to the plant till the output of the
plant reaches the desired level. The measuring
element converts the output to the same unit
(level) to that of reference input.
 Basic Control Actions
1. Two – position or On – Off control action:
In a two – position controller, the actuating
element has only two fixed positions which are, in
many cases, simply ON or OFF. It is relatively
simple and inexpensive, hence is widely used in
industrial as well as domestic applications.
Let the output signal from the controller be m(t)
and the actuating error signal be e(t). In two position
control, the signal m(t) remains at either a maximum
or minimum value depending on whether the
actuating error signal e(t) is positive or negative.
where, and are constants. The minimum
value is either zero or .

The range through which the actuating error signal

must move before the switching occurs is known as
differential gap, The differential gap may be present
due to friction etc, or in some cases is provided
intentionally to prevent too frequent operation of the
on – off mechanism.
Consider a liquid level control mechanism with two
position control, the valve is either open or closed.
Thus, the water inflow rate is either a positive
constant or zero.
2. Proportional control action:
For this control action, the relationship between
the output of the controller and the actuating error
signal is:

where, is proportional sensitivity or gain.

Whatever the actual mechanism may be and
whatever be the form of the actuator, the
proportional controller is essentially an amplifier with
an adjustable gain.
3. Integral control action:
The value of controller output m(t) changes at a
rate proportional to the actuating error signal e(t).

where, is integral sensitivity or gain and is

adjustable constant. The transfer function is

If the value of e(t) is doubled, then the value of m(t)

varies twice as fast. It is sometimes referred as reset
control.
4. Derivative control action:
Controller output is proportional to the rate of
change of actuating error signal.

Transfer function is

It is sometimes referred as rate control and has an

anticipatory character as even before the error
settles down to a steady state value it gets activated
due to changing error. It has disadvantage that it is
not effective for constant errors and hence is never
used alone.
5. Proportional – plus – integral control action:

Transfer function is

where, is integral time and it controls the integral

part of the control action. Its inverse is called the
reset rate. It is the number of times per minute that
the proportional part of control action is duplicated. It
is measured in terms of repeats per minute i.e. K,
2K, 3K, ...PI control action is suitable for steady
state errors.
6. Proportional - plus – derivative control action:

Transfer function is

where, is derivative time and is the time interval

by which the rate action advances the proportional
action. PD suitable for transient errors.
7. Proportional – plus – integral – plus –derivative:

Transfer function is
Effects of Control Actions on Time Response
• Derivative Control Action:
The block diagram depicts a second order
feedback system with PD controller:
 The open loop transfer function of the overall
system is

So, the effect of PD control is addition of a simple

zero to open loop transfer function of the plant at
Now, to investigate the effect of PD
controller on the transient response
of the feedback control system, let us assume the
unit step response of system as shown. The
corresponding error signal and it’s time derivative
are also shown. The unit step response has
relatively high peak overshoot and is oscillatory
which is not desirable. Considering only the
proportional case, e(t) is positive for , which
tries to reduce the peak overshoot of the system.
e(t) is negative for , so tries to reduce
the undershoot thus making the system less
oscillatory.
But first corrective action for positive e(t) is too
large while second corrective action for negative e(t)
is too small.
When derivative control action is used along
with, it weakens the first corrective action while
strengthens the second corrective actions, thus,
taking care of shortcomings of using proportional
control alone. It is evident that it is more suitable for
transient errors.
• Integral Control Action:
The block diagram depicts a second order
feedback system with PI controller:
 The open loop transfer function of the overall
system is

So, the effect of PI control is addition of a simple

zero to open loop transfer function of the plant at
and a simple pole at origin, increasing the
type of the system by one resulting in less
steady state error.
As the rate of control action is proportional to error,
the control of error is very fast and finally it reduces
to zero. Larger the error, faster be the control action.
But it results in a poor transient response making
the response flat and sluggish. However, by proper
choice of and it can be taken care of.