PID Controller - Control Loop Basics

Control Loop Basics

A familiar example of a control loop is the action taken when adjusting hot and cold faucets (valves) to maintain the water at a desired temperature. This typically involves the mixing of two process streams, the hot and cold water. The person touches the water to sense or measure its temperature. Based on this feedback they perform a control action to adjust the hot and cold water valves until the process temperature stabilizes at the desired value.

The sensed water temperature is the process variable or process value (PV). The desired temperature is called the setpoint (SP). The input to the process (the water valve position) is called the manipulated variable (MV). The difference between the temperature measurement and the setpoint is the error (e) and quantifies whether the water is too hot or too cold and by how much.

After measuring the temperature (PV), and then calculating the error, the controller decides when to change the tap position (MV) and by how much. When the controller first turns the valve on, it may turn the hot valve only slightly if warm water is desired, or it may open the valve all the way if very hot water is desired. This is an example of a simple proportional control. In the event that hot water does not arrive quickly, the controller may try to speed-up the process by opening up the hot water valve more-and-more as time goes by. This is an example of an integral control.

Making a change that is too large when the error is small is equivalent to a high gain controller and will lead to overshoot. If the controller were to repeatedly make changes that were too large and repeatedly overshoot the target, the output would oscillate around the setpoint in either a constant, growing, or decaying sinusoid. If the oscillations increase with time then the system is unstable, whereas if they decrease the system is stable. If the oscillations remain at a constant magnitude the system is marginally stable.

In the interest of achieving a gradual convergence at the desired temperature (SP), the controller may wish to damp the anticipated future oscillations. So in order to compensate for this effect, the controller may elect to temper its adjustments. This can be thought of as a derivative control method.

If a controller starts from a stable state at zero error (PV = SP), then further changes by the controller will be in response to changes in other measured or unmeasured inputs to the process that impact on the process, and hence on the PV. Variables that impact on the process other than the MV are known as disturbances. Generally controllers are used to reject disturbances and/or implement setpoint changes. Changes in feedwater temperature constitute a disturbance to the faucet temperature control process.

In theory, a controller can be used to control any process which has a measurable output (PV), a known ideal value for that output (SP) and an input to the process (MV) that will affect the relevant PV. Controllers are used in industry to regulate temperature, pressure, flow rate, chemical composition, speed and practically every other variable for which a measurement exists.