Control Engineering

Higher education teachers: Ambrožič Vanja, Nedeljković David

Subject description

Prerequisits:

• Enrolment in the study year.
• Knowledge of Mathematics I-IV, Physics I-II, Electrical Engineering Fundamentals I-II, Measurements, Electrical Machines.
• Before taking the exam the student has to accomplish the laboratory exercises and to prepare the corresponding report.
• Laboratory work must be carried out in groups with a small number of students due to the increased danger (high voltage and rotating parts).

Content (Syllabus outline):

Linear systems and their descriptions: differential equations, state space, Laplace transform and transfer function, frequency response (Bode, Nyquist, Nichols plots), step response. Block diagrams, open-loop, closed-loop systems and corresponding transfer functions. Linearization and normalization. Stability, steady state error, dynamic error. Features of elements of control systems in power electronics and electrical drives. PID controllers, their realization with operational amplifiers and microcontrollers. Optimization of controllers' parameters. Cascade control systems, process control systems. Features of digital control, Z-transform. Influence of nonlinearities, limit cycles, integrator wind-up. Basics of simulations and use of appropriate tools in control system design. Examples of control systems in power electronics and electrical drives.

Objectives and competences:

• The student will master fundamental topics in the field of control engineering, with emphasis on linear systems. He will meet a variety of methods to design control systems and learn how to use these methods with state-of-the-art software tools.
• The student will become aware of the modeling inadequacies and will develop a critical approach to design of control systems, especially in the field of power electronics and electrical drives.

Intended learning outcomes:

• Knowledge and understanding:

The student will understand the basic concepts in the field of control engineering and know different ways to describe the electrical and mechanical systems.

• Application:

Students will independently design and optimize simpler control systems in the field of power electronics, by taking into consideration one of the presented methods.

• Reflection:

The student will be familiar with the advantages and shortcomings of different approaches to solving the control engineering problems and he will be aware of the risk of ineffective control that may result from them.

• Transferable skills:

The skills acquired in this course will provide a basis for in-depth study of control in other courses covering power engineering, electrical drives and electrical technological processes. The student can upgrade the knowledge of this course and use it for the realization of complex control systems with state of the art technological solutions. In addition to control systems in technology and nature, the student will understand the operation of feedback systems in the society, as well as their failure in case of poor planning.

Learning and teaching methods:

• Lectures (45 hours) and laboratory exercises (30 hours);
• optional: project work on R&D activities within the Laboratory of Control Engineering and Power Electronics.

Study materials

1. Gene F. Franklin, J. David Powell, Abbas Emami-Naeini: Feedback control of dynamic systems, Addison-Wesley, 2010.
2. Dogan Ibrahim: Microcontroller based applied digital control: J. Wiley & Sons, 2006.
3. Werner Leonhard: Control of Electrical Drives, Springer; 2001.