An approach to teaching PID controller tuning

This paper discusses an approach to the teaching of PID controller tuning methods to students in control engineering at Dublin Institute of Technology. The method involves analytically calculating the gain margin, phase margin and maximum sensitivity for PI and PID controlled systems whose process is modelled in first order lag plus time delay (FOLPD) form. Students can examine the performance of many tuning rules from graphical results, allowing insight to be developed as to the most rational choice of the tuning rule for the application. Some preliminary work done to develop an expert system to allow a greater automation of the procedure for recommending a tuning rule, for user defined requirements, is also described.