Exploring Control Design Variables

This paper suggests a method of control system parameter selection based on a set of parametric plots of closed-loop system performance. Here, the performance measures of rise time, settling time, percent overshoot, root sensitivity, gain margin, and phase margin are investigated as functions of the forward loop gain. The explicit functional dependence of these performance indices is summarized in plots that highlight the control system design space as well as the tradeoffs between feasible system parameters. An example problem demonstrates how the information serves as an aid in satisfying design specifications and uncovering design tradeoffs.