This menu provides for easy specification and implementation of controllers from a library of 16 forms. Control structures from PID to high order cascade and state space forms are readily implemented. Control may be specified in discrete time form or - because of the high speed and precision of the DSP processor - in continuous time form. A Generalized Form option allows for the specification of arbitrary linear control structures of up to 46 terms. (See the "ECP USR" option under Executive Program for fully general non-linear control implementation). Sampling rates are adjustable from < 1 Hz to 1.1 kHz.
Controllers may be specified by direct entry of parameters or by importing them from applications such as MATLAB®, SIMULINK®, Matrix X®, Mathematica®, or most other ASCII exportable applications. A set of specially written MATLAB® scripts is furnished with each system providing easy-to-use tools for plant model generation, control design, and dynamic simulation. Because the control parameters are quickly specified and implemented, much insight is afforded the student by interactively changing gains and witnessing the effect on system behavior.
Parameters are easily uploaded from the DSP to view the values actually being used in real-time execution. The user may also supplement all control forms with feed-forward filters. This is particularly useful for the study of tracking controllers.
The Setup menu also gives options for selecting the working units (e.g. radians, degrees, or encoder counts for rotational systems; inches, centimeters, or encoder counts for rectilinear systems).
