Control Engineering - Fundamentals

Number

rtGL

ECTS

3.0

Level

intermediate

Overview

Controllers are key components of numerous systems, both in everyday life and in industry. Therefore, engineers have to master control systems in order to be able to solve most control problems in a simple and correct way. The principles of control engineering can be applied to arbitrary systems (technical, economic, social, biological etc.).

Contents:

Basic terms of control engineering (open-loop and closed-loop control, tracking and disturbance rejection)
Descriptions of transfer behavior and basic system identification
Block diagrams of control loops
Discontinuous controllers (two-position and three-position controllers)
PID controller (behavior in the time and frequency domains, controller selection and tuning, auxiliary functions)
Control loop analysis
Stability of the control loop and stability margins
Enhanced control structures
Simulation with MATLAB/Simulink or Python
Lab exercise on controller tuning

Learning objectives

Students are familiar with the essential basic terms of control engineering and can apply them to practical cases.
They know different types of controllers as well as their advantages and disadvantages. They can select a suitable controller for a given task and also tune it.
They can analyze and question the behaviour of a control loop.
They can apply simulation tools in order to model and simulate control loops.

Previous knowledge

For degree course Systems Engineering (ST):

Signale und Systeme (sigsy)
Modellieren Dynamischer Systeme (mds)

For degree course Electrical and Information Technology (EIT):

Signalverarbeitung (siv)
Modellieren Dynamischer Systeme (mds)

Exam format

Continuous assessment grade with final written exam