Dynamic testing of control systems

The paper reviews the manual, computer-controlled, and computer-based dynamic testing of control systems, and the reasons for the popularity of such tests. It is shown that correlation techniques are necessary in either time or frequency domains in order to reduce uncertainty due to measurement noise. Engineering guidelines for choosing those test measurements, such as spot frequencies and cross-correlation function time delays, which contain the most useful information for system checkout are included, so that the test time necessary to achieve user confidence in the particular product may be considerably reduced. Hardware examples are used throughout to illustrate the approach.