What is a control system?

To answer the question, we can say that in our daily lives there are numerous "objectives" that need to be accomplished. For instance, in the domestic domain, we need to regulate the temperature and humidity of homes and buildings for comfortable living. For transportation, we need to control the automobile and airplane to go from one point to another accurately and safely. Industrially, manufacturing processes contain numerous objectives for products that will satisfy the precision and cost effectiveness requirements. A human being is capable of performing a wide range of tasks, including decision making. Some of these tasks, such as picking up objects and walking from one point to another, are commonly carried out in a routine fashion. Under certain conditions, some of these tasks are to be performed in the best possible way.In recent years, control systems have assumed an increasingly important role in the development and advancement of modern civilization and technology. Practically every aspect of our day-to-day activities is affected by some type of control system. Control systems are found in abundance in all sectors of industry, such as quality control of manufactured products, automatic assembly lines, machine-tool control, space technology and weapon systems, computer control, transportation systems, power systems, robotics ,Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS),

nanotechnology, and many others. Even the control of inventory and social and economic systems may be approached from the theory of automatic control. Finally we can define the control system A control system is an interconnection of components forming a system configuration that will provide a desired system response.

Example: Flyball Governor (1788) shown in figure

Balls fly out as speed increases,

Valve closes, slowing engine

Note:

Types of Control Systems:1-Open Loop - No feedback - Difficult to control output with accuracy

Definitions of Open-loop control An open-loop control system utilizes an actuating device to control the process directly without using feedback. A common example of an open-loop control system is an electric toaster in the kitchen, washing machine and rotating disk as shown in figure.

2-Closed Loop
- Must have feedback, must have sensor on output and almost always negative feedback. Definitions of Closed-loop control A closed-loop control system uses a measurement of the output and feedback of this signal to compare it with the desired output. A person steering an automobile by looking at the autos location on the road and making the appropriate adjustments is a good example for closed loop control system as shown in figure.

The level of fluid in a tank control.

Note:

Multivariable control system