N91332 Fundamentals of Industrial Control Systems

The course aims to make students to acquire the fundamental knowledge in order to study the structure of a control problem and to set up its analytical or numerical solution. It also aims to provide some elementary notions about the design of the mathematical model of such system and the analysis of its performance and criticality.

At the end of the course the students will have the needed basic skills in order to study the structure of a control problem and configure its analytical or numerical solution.   They will be able to implement some simple control systems and analyze their performance and criticality.

The purpose of Industrial Control Systems is the transfer of the control functions to machines valid for a wide type of systems. Therefore, the Industrial Control Systems is actually an interdisciplinary field, underlying almost every area of engineering. The course provides the essential elements for the modelling of systems to be controller and for the formalization and understanding of simple control problems. Examples from different application areas will allow to appreciate the multidisciplinary nature of the subject.

During the course will be introduced the problem of automatic control and the types of mathematical modeling that can be used for its solution. The main steps of the control problem will be introduced: definition of the problem, identification and calculation of its solutions, analysis of the results and validation of the solutions. During the course will be deepened in particular the calculation, the analysis and the validation of the solutions.

The study of analytical solutions will be applied to continuous time systems in the frequency domain, according to the Laplace transform technique.

The main topics discussed are the following:

1. Introduction
- The problem of control: formulation and examples. Control Systems Architectures

2.Dynamic systems
- The role of the process dynamics. Models of elementary systems. Linear systems. Linearization hints
- Transfer functions: definition and use. Poles, zeros, gain. Stability
- Canonical system response of 1st order systems: Time constant. 2nd order Systems: Real Poles and complex and conjused poles. Role of zeros
- Block diagrams: different type of schemes in Cascade, in parallel, and feedback. Stability. Elaboration rule
- Frequency response: definition, meaning and connection to the transfer function. Bode diagramy

3. Control systems
- Formalization of a simple control problem. Role of transducers and actuators. Requirements of a control system
- Stability. Phase margin. Bode criterion
- Static performance: error at the steady state. Dynamic performance: Response speed and degree of stability
- Design of the controller: specifications. Static project and dynamic project. Compensations

4. Control Systems Technologies
- PID controllers: Calibration rules.

The lessons will be mainly in the classroom and sometimes in the computer lab for simulations.

Learning will be done through a group work and through a written exam with questions on the control theory and exercises.