CHAPITER ONE STRUCTURE OF DIGITAL CONTROL SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE
STRUCTURE OF DIGITAL CONTROL SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction
Rapid advances in digital system technology have radically altered the control system design
It has become routinely practicable to design very complicated digital controllers and to carry
out the extensive calculations required for their design. These advances in implementation and
design capability can be obtained at low cost because of the widespread availability of
inexpensive and powerful digital computers and their related devices.
A digital control system uses digital hardware, usually in the form of a programmed digital
computer, as the heart of the controller. A typical digital controller has analog components at
its periphery to interface with the plant. It is the processing of the controller equations that
distinguishes analog from digital control.
The signals used in the description of digital control systems are termed discrete-time
signals. Discrete time signals are defined only for discrete instants of time, usually at evenly
spaced time steps. Discrete-time computer-generated signals have discrete (or quantized)
amplitudes and thus attain only discrete values. Figure 1.1 shows a continuous amplitude signal
that is represented by a 3-bit binary code at evenly spaced time instants. In general, an n-bit
binary code can represent only 2n different values. Because of
the complexity of dealing with quantized signals, digital control system design proceeds as if
the signals involved are not of discrete amplitude. Further analysis usually must be performed
to determine whether the proposed level of quantization is acceptable.

Figure 1.1: An example of a 3-bit quantized signal

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CHAPITER ONE STRUCTURE OF DIGITAL CONTROL SYSTEM

A discrete-time system as a continuous time system is said to be linear if it satisfies the

principle of superposition. Any linear combination of inputs produces the same linear
combination of corresponding output components. If a system is not linear, then it is termed
nonlinear. A discrete-time system is invariant if its properties do not change with time. Any
time shift of the inputs produces an equal time shift of every corresponding output signal.

1.2 The structure of a digital control system

Figure 1.2 shows a block diagram of a typical digital control system for a continuous-time
plant. The system has two reference inputs and five outputs, two of which are measured directly
by analog sensors. The analog-to-digital converters (A/D) sample the analog sensor signals and
produce equivalent binary representations of these signals. The sampled sensor signals are then
modified by the digital controller algorithms, which are designed to produce the necessary
digital control inputs 𝑢 𝑘 and 𝑢 𝑘 . Consequently, the control inputs 𝑢 𝑘 and 𝑢 𝑘 are
converted to analog signals 𝑢 𝑡 and 𝑢 𝑡 using digital-to-analog converters (D/A). The
D/A transforms the digital codes to signal samples and then produces step reconstruction from
the signal samples by transforming the binary-coded digital input to voltages. These voltages
are held constant during the sampling period T until the next sample arrives. This process of
holding each of the samples is termed sample and hold. Then the analog signals 𝑢 𝑡 and
𝑢 𝑡 are applied to control the behavior of the plant.

Figure 1.2: A digital control system controlling a continuous-time plant.

In Figure 1.2 is a real-time clock that synchronizes the actions of the A/D, D/A, and shift
registers is not shown. Of course, there are many variations on this basic theme, including
situations where the signals of the analog sensors are sampled at different sampling periods and

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where the system has many controllers with different sampling periods. Other examples include
circumstances where:
- the A/D and D/A are not synchronized;
- the sampling rate is not fixed;
- the sensors produce digital signals directly;
- the A/D conversion is different from sample and hold;
- the actuators accept digital commands.
1.3 Advantages of digital control
Digital control offers distinct advantages over analog control such as:
Accuracy: Digital signals are represented in terms of zeros and ones with typically 12 bits or
more to represent a single number. This involves a very small error as compared to continuous
signals, where noise and power supply drift are always present.
Implementation errors: Digital processing of control signals involves addition and
multiplication by stored numerical values. The errors that result from digital representation and
arithmetic are negligible. By contrast, the processing of analog signals is performed using
components such as resistors and capacitors with actual values that vary significantly from the
nominal design values.
Flexibility: An analog controller is difficult to modify or redesign once implemented in
hardware. A digital controller is implemented in firmware or software and its modification
is possible without a complete replacement of the original controller. Furthermore, the structure
of the digital controller need not follow one of the simple forms that are typically used in analog
control. More complex controller structures involve a few extra arithmetic operations and are
easily realizable.
Speed: The speed of computer hardware has increased exponentially since the 1980s. This
increase in processing speed has made it possible to sample and process control signals at very
high speeds. Because the interval between samples, the sampling period, can be made very
small, digital controllers achieve performance that is essentially the same as that based on
continuous monitoring of the controlled variable.
Cost: Although the prices of most goods and services have steadily increased, the cost of digital
circuitry continues to decrease. Advances in semiconductor technology have made it possible
to manufacture better, faster, and more reliable integrated circuits and to offer them to the
consumer at a lower price. This has made the use of digital controllers more economical even
for small, low-cost applications.

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1.4 Examples of digital control systems

In this section, we briefly discuss examples of control systems where digital implementation
is now the norm. There are many other examples of industrial processes that are digitally
controlled, and the reader is encouraged to seek other examples from the literature.
1.4.1 Closed-loop drug delivery system
Several chronic diseases require the regulation of the patient’s blood levels of a specific
drug or hormone. For example, some diseases involve the failure of the body’s natural closed-
loop control of blood levels of nutrients. Most prominent among these is the
disease diabetes, where the production of the hormone insulin that controls blood glucose levels
is impaired. To design a closed-loop drug delivery system, a sensor is utilized to measure the
levels of the regulated drug or nutrient in the blood. This measurement is converted to digital
form and fed to the control computer, which drives a pump that injects the drug into the patient’s
blood. A block diagram of the drug delivery system is shown in Figure 1.3. Se

Figure 1.3: Drug delivery digital control system. (A) Schematic of a drug delivery
system. (B) Block diagram

1.4.2 Computer control of an aircraft turbojet engine

To achieve the high performance required for today’s aircraft, turbojet engines employ
sophisticated computer control strategies. A simplified block diagram for turbojet computer
control is shown in Figure 1.4. The control requires feedback of the engine state (speed,
temperature, and pressure), measurements of the aircraft state (speed and direction), and pilot
command.

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Figure 1.4: Turbojet engine control system. (A) F-22 military fighter aircraft.
(B) Block diagram of an engine
1.5 A/D and D/A conversions
Although compensators are becoming digital, most plants are still analog. In order to connect
digital controllers and analog plants, analog signals must be converted into digital signals and
vice versa. These conversions can be achieved by using analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to
analog (D/A) converters. We discuss how these conversions are achieved.
Consider the operational amplifier circuit shown in figure 1.5. It is essentially the output of
this circuit is given by

Figure 1.5: digital to analog converter (DAC)

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CHAPITER ONE STRUCTURE OF DIGITAL CONTROL SYSTEM

Figure 1.6: Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and conversion time

Figure 1.7: sample and hold circuit