JS Mechatronics Control Engineering Time Response of Systems (see Ch.

. 4, Nise) We want to find the time domain behaviour (time response) of a system from its transfer function. The transfer function will be the Laplace Transformed version in terms of the complex variable s. We will: 1. study 1st and 2nd order systems 2. see how to determine the time response of a system from its transfer function and how to shape the response by manipulating the poles and zeroes 3. see how to determine the transient response of a system 4. see how to deal with higher order systems Poles, Zeros, System Response A transfer function will be written as a ratio of polynomials is s as follows: N ( s) G(s) = D( s) where N(s) is the numerator and D(s) is the denominator. Normally the order of D(s) will be greater than (N(s). The roots of D(s) are called poles; the roots of N(s) are called zeros. The poles and zeros together determine the behaviour of a system; moving them will alter the behaviour. We will see how to modify the behaviour of a system by moving poles and zeros. First Order Systems The order of a system is given by the order of the denominator. For example, s+2 G ( s) = s+5 is a 1st order system while s +1 G ( s) = 2 s + 2s + 2 is a 2nd order system. We will represent a system as follows (as a block diagram):

R(s)
Figure 1 Control System

G(s)

C(s)

where R(s) is the reference input or command, G(s) is the transfer function and C(s) is the controlled variable or controlled output. From Figure 1

C ( s) = G ( s) * R( s )
To find the response of a system to a unit step input (i.e. a change in position command) we define the unit step as follows: u (t ) = 0, t < 0 u (t ) = 1, t 0

Dermot Geraghty

JS Mechatronics Control Engineering In the frequency domain the unit step is 1 s So if we apply a unit step to the system in Figure 1 where s+2 1 G(s) = , R( s) = s+5 s we get s+21 3 1 2 1 C ( s) = = + s +5 s 5 s +5 5 s (after taking partial fractions so that we can easily invert the Laplace transformed terms). Taking the inverse transform (using tables) we get the time domain response which is: L {u (t )} = 2 3 2 3 c(t ) = u (t ) + e 5t = + e 5t 5 5 5 5 This is made up of a steady state term (no time dependency) and a transient which dies out after some time. If we now plot the poles and zeros of the transfer function on the s-plane using X for poles and O for zeros:

-5

O
-2

Table 1 s-plane plot of transfer function

And look at the output transform 2 / 5 3/ 5 C ( s) = + s s+5 there is a pole due to the input step function which causes a step function at the output. This is the forces response and results in a steady state output. There is also a pole at 5 which is due to the system. This is the natural response of the system. In this case it is an exponential decay term. This is the transient part of the response. The total response is the sum the steady state and transient responses. The figure below from Nise illustrates it well:

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JS Mechatronics Control Engineering

Figure 2 Figure 4.1 from Nise

The effect of the position of the system pole is to shorten the transient response as the pole move is the left on the real axis.

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JS Mechatronics Control Engineering

Figure 3 Effect of system pole

Example Whats the response of the following system to a step input? s+3 G(s) = ( s + 2)( s + 4)( s + 5) In general the answer is:

A B C D + + + = A + Be 2t + Ce4t + De5t s s+2 s+4 s+5 There are exponentially decaying transients at the system poles when the poles are on the real axis. c(t ) =
1st Order Systems in General If a first order system has the transfer function a G ( s) = , s+a a 1 C (s) = G (s) R(s) = , s+as c(t ) = c f (t ) + cn (t )

then
a A B 1 1 = + = s+a s s+a s s+a c(t ) = 1 e at This is the response of a 1st order system to a unit step. It looks like C ( s) =

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JS Mechatronics Control Engineering

Figure 4 1st order response to unit step input Some Definitions (see Figure 4) 1. Rise Time, TR. This is the time taken for the output to go from 10% of its final value to 90% of its final value. Moving the pole left on the real axis shortens the rise time. 2. Settling Time TS. This is the time taken for the output to get to 2% of its final value. 3. Time Constant . The time taken for the output to reach 63% of its final vale after a step input or equivalently the time taken for the transient to decay to 37% of its initial value. 2nd Order Systems These have a wide variety of responses which depend on the damping factor () and the natural frequency (n). The general form is: 2 n N (s) G ( s) = 2 = 2 s + 2 n s + n D( s ) The roots (poles) of D(s) are: 1 2 2 4 2 n s1,2 = n 4 n = n j n 1 2 = n j d 2 The step responses for a 2nd order system are shown in Figure 5.

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JS Mechatronics Control Engineering

Figure 5 Pole plots and Step Responses (from Nise)

The form of the response depends on the damping. We define the damping factor as the ratio of the exponential decay frequency to the natural frequency. We classify the responses as: 1. Overdamped when > 1. There is no oscillatory component and the poles are both on the real axis. The output never overshoots. 2. Underdamped when < 1. The poles are complex conjugate pairs. There will be a transitory oscillatory component with a frequency of oscillation determined by the damped natural frequency. The underdamped case is important so well come back to it! 3. Undamped. The system oscillates sinusoidally without decay an oscillator. 4. Critically damped when = 1. Undamped when = 0. The poles are real and coincident. Theres no overshoot. It has the shortest response time without overshoot. The positioning of the poles determines the classification and the response to a step input (see Table 1) and the time domain responses are shown in Figure 6.

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JS Mechatronics Control Engineering

Response Poles 2, DISTINCT, REAL, poles 2 complex poles 2 imaginary poles - symmetrical 2 real, repeated poles (coincident)

OverDamped UnderDamped UnDamped Critically Damped

Table 1 Damping and Pole Positions

Figure 6 2nd Order System Response Types

The general forms of the responses are as follows: 1. Overdamped response: c(t ) = K1e 1t + K 2 e 2t when the 2 poles are real, and distinct 2. Underdamped response: c(t ) = ae d t cos(d t ) when the poles are in complex conjugate pairs 3. Undamped response: c(t ) = A cos(t ) where the poles are imaginary and the system oscillates at the given frequency 4. Critically damped: c(t ) = K1e 1t + K 2te 1t where the poles are real and repeated
UnderDamped 2nd Order Systems The response of an underdamped 2nd order system to a step input is given by: 1 c(t ) = 1 e nt cos(d t ) 2 1

where = tan 1 (

1
2

) and d = n 1 2

Dermot Geraghty

JS Mechatronics Control Engineering The step response of an underdamped 2nd order system is shown in Figure 7. Note that as the damping decreases the percentage overshoot increases and the time taken to settle becomes longer.

Figure 7 2nd Order Systems with various damping ratios

Some Definitions (see Figure 8) 1. Peak Time TP. This is the time taken to reach the first peak. 2. Percent Overshoot %OS. The amount by which the response overshoots the steady state (SSV) value as a % of the SSV. 3. Settling Time TS. This can be defined as the 2% or 5% settling time. We will use the 2% definition. Its the time taken for the response to settle to within 2% of the SS value. 4. Rise Time TR. As before for 1st order systems.

These can be evaluated from the following equations (see Nise Ch. 4 for derivations):
TP =

n 1

=
2

%OS = e / 1 X 100 4 4 TS = =

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JS Mechatronics Control Engineering

Figure 8 2nd order underdamped response specifications

Dermot Geraghty