• PID Controller

• Without automatic controllers, all regulation tasks will have to

be done manually.
• For example: To keep constant the temperature of water
discharged from an industrial gas-fired heater, an operator
will have to watch a temperature gauge and adjust a fuel gas
valve accordingly.
• Feedback Control
• The control task done by the operator is called feedback
control, because the operator changes the firing rate
based on feedback that he gets from the process via the
temperature gauge. Feedback control can be done
manually as described here, but it is commonly done
automatically.

• Control Loop
• The operator, valve, process, and temperature gauge
forms a control loop. Any change the operator makes to
the gas valve affects the temperature which is fed back
to the operator, thereby closing the loop.
• A PID controller has a Set Point (SP) that the operator
can set to the desired temperature. The Controller’s
Output (CO) sets the position of the control valve. And
the temperature measurement, called the Process
Variable (PV) gives the controller its much-needed
feedback.
• When everything is up and running, the PID controller
compares the process variable to its set point and
calculates the difference between the two signals, also
called the Error (E).

• Then, based on the Error and the PID controller’s tuning

constants, the controller calculates an appropriate
controller output that opens the control valve to the
right position for keeping the temperature at the set
point. If the temperature should rise above its set point,
the controller will reduce the valve position and vice
versa.
• PID Control
• PID controllers have three control modes:
• Proportional Control
• Integral Control
• Derivative Control
• Each of the three modes reacts differently to the error.
The amount of response produced by each control
mode is adjustable by changing the controller’s tuning
settings.
 On-Off Control
• This is the simplest form of control.

Set point

Error
Output
• It is interesting to note that more than half of the
industrial controllers in use today are PID controllers or
modified PID controllers.

• Because most PID controllers are adjusted on-site, many

different types of tuning rules have been proposed in the
literature.

• Using these tuning rules, delicate and fine tuning of PID

controllers can be made on-site.
• Proportional Control Mode
• The proportional control mode is in most cases
the main driving force in a controller. It changes
the controller output in proportion to the error. If
the error gets bigger, the control action gets
bigger.
 Proportional Control (P)
• In proportional mode, there is a continuous linear relation
between value of the controlled variable and position of the
final control element.

• Output of proportional controller is

• The transfer function can be written as

10
 Proportional Controllers (P)
• As the gain is increased the system responds faster to
changes in set-point but becomes progressively
underdamped and eventually unstable.

11
• The use of proportional control alone has a large
drawback – offset.
• Offset is a sustained error that cannot be eliminated by
proportional control alone. For example, let’s consider
controlling the water level in the tank in Figure 5 with a
proportional-only controller. As long as the flow out of
the tank remains constant, the level will remain at its set
point.
• But, if the operator should increase the flow out of the tank, the
tank level will begin to decrease due to the imbalance between
inflow and outflow. While the tank level decreases, the error
increases and our proportional controller increases the controller
output proportional to this error. Consequently, the valve
controlling the flow into the tank opens wider and more water
flows into the tank.
• As the level continues to decrease, the valve continues to open
until it gets to a point where the inflow again matches the
outflow. At this point the tank level (and error) will remain
constant. Because the error remains constant our P-controller
will keep its output constant and the control valve will hold its
position. The system now remains at balance, but the tank level
remains below its set point. This residual sustained error is called
Offset.
 Integral Control
• As long as there is an error present (process variable
not at set point), the integral control mode will
continuously increment or decrement the controller’s
output to reduce the error. Given enough time,
integral action will drive the controller output far
enough to reduce the error to zero.
 Proportional Plus Integral Controllers (PI)
• Integral control describes a controller in which the
output rate of change is dependent on the magnitude of
the input.
• Specifically, a smaller amplitude input causes a slower
rate of change of the output.

16
 Proportional Plus Integral Controllers (PI)
• The major advantage of integral controllers is that they have
the unique ability to return the controlled variable back to
the exact set point following a disturbance.

• Disadvantages of the integral control mode are that it

responds relatively slowly to an error signal and that it can
initially allow a large deviation at the instant the error is
produced.

• This can lead to system instability and cyclic operation. For

this reason, the integral control mode is not normally used
alone, but is combined with another control mode.
17
Proportional Plus Integral Control (PI)

+
+
-

18
 Proportional Plus Integral Control (PI)

• The transfer function can be written as

19
 The characteristics of P and I
controllers
A proportional controller (Kp) will have the effect of
reducing the rise time, but never eliminate, the steady-
state error. An integral control (Ki) will have the effect of
eliminating the steady-state error, but it may make the
transient response worse
Close Loop Response Rise Time Overshoot Settling Time Steady State Error

Kp Decrease Increase Small Change Decrease

Ki Decrease Increase Increase Eliminate

• The transfer function of the P-I controller
looks like the following:

Here,
Kp = Proportional gain.
KI = Integral gain
 Derivative Control
• The derivative component causes the output to
decrease if the process variable is increasing rapidly.

• The derivative response is proportional to the rate of

change of the process variable.

• Increasing the derivative time (Td) parameter will

cause the control system to react more strongly to
changes in the error term and will increase the speed
of the overall control system response.
• Most practical control systems use very small
derivative time (Td), because the Derivative
Response is highly sensitive to noise in the
process variable signal.

• If the sensor feedback signal is noisy or if the

control loop rate is too slow, the derivative
response can make the control system
unstable
Proportional Plus derivative Control (PD)

+
+
-

24
 Proportional Plus derivative Control (PD)

• The transfer function can be written as

25
 Proportional Plus derivative Control (PD)
• The higher the error signal rate of change, the sooner the final
control element is positioned to the desired value.

• The added derivative action reduces initial overshoot of the

measured variable, and therefore aids in stabilizing the process
sooner.

• This control mode is called proportional plus derivative (PD) control

because the derivative section responds to the rate of change of the
error signal

26
Proportional Plus Integral Plus Derivative Control (PID)

27
Proportional Plus Integral Plus Derivative Control (PID)
• Although PD control deals neatly with the overshoot and ringing
problems associated with proportional control it does not cure the
problem with the steady-state error. Fortunately it is possible to
eliminate this while using relatively low gain by adding an integral
term to the control function which becomes

28
The Characteristics of P, I, and D controllers

CL RESPONSE RISE TIME OVERSHOOT SETTLING TIME S-S ERROR

Kp Decrease Increase Small Change Decrease

Ki Decrease Increase Increase Eliminate

Small Small
Kd Decrease Decrease
Change Change
• Once P has been set to obtain a desired fast response,
the integral term is increased to stop the oscillations.

• The integral term reduces the steady state error, but

increases overshoot.

• Some amount of overshoot is always necessary for a fast

system so that it could respond to changes immediately.
The integral term is tweaked to achieve a minimal steady
state error.
• Once the P and I have been set to get the desired fast
control system with minimal steady state error, the
derivative term is increased until the loop is acceptably
quick to its set point.

• Increasing derivative term decreases overshoot and

yields higher gain with stability but would cause the
system to be highly sensitive to noise.

• Often times, engineers need to tradeoff one

characteristic of a control system for another to better
meet their requirements
• From the table above we see that Kp will help
us to reduce the steady-state error. Let's first
add a proportional controller into the system