Thermocouples

A thermocouple is an electrical apparatus that can generate a current proportional to the amount of heat it is exposed to. In electrical engineering and industry, thermocouples are a widely used type of temperature sensor[1] and can also be used as a means to convert thermal potential difference into electric potential difference.They are cheap and interchangeable, have standard connectors, and can measure a wide range of temperatures. The main limitation is accuracy; System errors of less than one kelvin (K) can be difficult to achieve.

Open Loop Controller

An open-loop controller, also called a non-feedback controller, is a type of controller which computes its input into a system using only the current state and its model of the system.

A characteristic of the open-loop controller is that it does not use feedback to determine if its input has achieved the desired goal. This means that the system does not observe the output of the processes that it is controlling. Consequently, a true open-loop system can not engage in machine learning and also cannot correct any errors that it could make. It also may not compensate for disturbances in the system.

For example, an irrigation sprinkler system, programmed to turn on at set times could be an example of an open-loop system if it does not measure soil moisture as a form of feedback. Even if rain is pouring down on the lawn, the sprinkler system would activate on schedule, wasting water.

Open-loop control is useful for well-defined systems where the relationship between input and the resultant state can be modeled by a mathematical formula. For example determining the voltage to be fed to an electric motor that drives a constant load, in order to achieve a desired speed would be a good application of open-loop control. If the load were not predictable, on the other hand, the motor's speed might vary as a function of the load as well as of the voltage, and an open-loop controller would therefore not be sufficient to ensure repeatable control of the velocity.

An example of this is a conveyor system that is required to travel at a constant speed. For a constant voltage, the conveyor will move at a different speed depending on the load on the motor (represented here by the weight of objects on the conveyor). In order for the conveyor to run at a constant speed, the voltage of the motor must be adjusted depending on the load. In this case, a closed-loop control system would be necessary.

An open-loop controller is often used in simple processes because of its simplicity and low-cost, especially in systems where feedback is not critical. A typical example would be a conventional washing machine, for which the length of machine wash time is entirely dependent on the judgment and estimation of the human operator. Generally, to obtain a more accurate or more adaptive control, it is necessary to feed the output of the system back to the inputs of the controller. This type of system is called a closed-loop system

Control Loop Basics

A familiar example of a control loop is the action taken to keep one's shower water at the ideal temperature, which typically involves the mixing of two process streams, cold and hot water. The person feels the water to estimate its temperature. Based on this measurement they perform a control action: use the cold water tap to adjust the process. The person would repeat this input-output control loop, adjusting the hot water flow until the process temperature stabilized at the desired value.

Feeling the water temperature is taking a measurement of the process value or process variable (PV). The desired temperature is called the setpoint (SP). The output from the controller and input to the process (the tap position) is called the manipulated variable (MV). The difference between the measurement and the setpoint is the error (e), too hot or too cold and by how much.

As a controller, one decides roughly how much to change the tap position (MV) after one determines the temperature (PV), and therefore the error. This first estimate is the equivalent of the proportional action of a PID controller. The integral action of a PID controller can be thought of as gradually adjusting the temperature when it is almost right. Derivative action can be thought of as noticing the water temperature is getting hotter or colder, and how fast, anticipating further change and tempering adjustments for a soft landing at the desired temperature (SP).

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, this control loop would be termed unstable and the output would oscillate around the setpoint in either a constant, growing, or decaying sinusoid. A human would not do this because we are adaptive controllers, learning from the process history, but PID controllers do not have the ability to learn and must be set up correctly. Selecting the correct gains for effective control is known as tuning the controller.

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 feed water temperature constitute a disturbance to the shower 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. Automobile cruise control is an example of a process which utilizes automated control.

Due to their long history, simplicity, well grounded theory and simple setup and maintenance requirements, PID controllers are the controllers of choice for many of these applications.