George Mason University
School of Information Technology and Engineering
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

 

ECE 421
Classical Systems & Control Theory
Fall 2006
Professor Cook
Science and Technology II, Room 255
703-993-1699
gcook@gmu.edu

 

 

OFFICE HOURS: 

  • Tuesday: 9:00 am – 12.
  • Thursday: 9:00 am – 12.
  • Other hours by appointment only.

PREREQUISITES:

  • Grade of C or better in ECE 220 or P.O.I.

COURSE TEXT:

  • Modern Control Engineering, 4th Edition, K. Ogata, Prentice Hall, 2002, Chapters 1, 3, 5 – 9.

HONOR AND EXAM POLICY:

  • All students are expected to abide by the George Mason University Honor Code. Sharing of ideas and comparison of answers on homework is acceptable, but copied work will not be accepted. All tests and the final exam will be closed book and closed notes unless specifically stated otherwise by the Instructor. All work must be your own. Any reasonable suspicion of an honor violation will be reported. Students must arrive in class within 15 minutes of the scheduled starting time for all tests and exams. Students arriving later than 15 minutes after the scheduled starting time will not be allowed to take the test/exam and will receive a grade of 0 for the test/exam.

 

OBJECTIVES:

  1. Learn the purposes, advantages and disadvantages, terminology, and configurations of feedback control systems.
  2. Learn ways of classifying, measuring, and analyzing the stability and performance properties of feedback control systems.
  3. Learn various classical frequency domain and time domain techniques for designing compensators in order to improve performance in feedback systems.

 

GRADING:

Two Tests
40%
Homeworks
10%
Two Projects
20%
Final Exam
30%

A student requesting a grade change for a homework or test problem must provide me with the following information in writing within two class periods after the work is returned:

  1. The number(s) of the problem(s) to be considered;
  2. A description of your mistakes made in the problem(s); and
  3. The reason that you feel that you should receive additional points for the work.

 

COURSE OUTLINE

  • Chapter 1
    • Introduction, what control systems are, types of control systems, examples of control systems, what feedback is and why it is used.
    • 1-1/2 class periods.

  • Chapter 3
    • Block diagrams and their manipulation
    • 1-1/2 class periods.

  • Chapter 5
    • Transient analysis for systems, model and characteristics of first-order systems, model and characteristics of second-order systems, effects of control actions on system performance, stability analysis with the Routh array, steady-state errors in systems
    • 8 class periods.

  • Chapter 6
    • Closed-loop poles and their movement, concept of the root locus magnitude and phase criteria, constructing the root locus plot, properties of the root locus.
    • 3 class periods.

  • Chapter 7
    • Specifications for control systems, designing compensators using the root locus, phase lag and phase lead compensators, lag-lead compensation
    • 4 class periods.

  • Chapter 8
    • Frequency response analysis, polar plots and the Nyquist stability criterion, review of Bode plots, gain and phase margins
    • 4 class periods.

  • Chapter 9
    • Specifications for control systems, designing compensators in the frequency domain, phase lag and phase lead compensators, lag-lead compensation
    • 4 class periods.

 

TEST SCHEDULE

Test 1

Tuesday, October 5

Chapters 1, 3, 5 (half)

Test 2

Thursday, November 16

Chapters 5 (half), 6

Final Exam

Thursday, Dec 14
1:30 – 4:15 p.m.

Comprehensive,
Chapters 7, 8, 9 emphasized with

 

REFERENCES

[1] J.J. D’Azzo and C.H. Houpis, Linear Control System Analysis and Design, McGraw-Hill, New York, 4th edition, 1995.

[2] Richard C. Dorf and Robert H. Bishop, Modern Control Systems, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 7th edition, 1995.

[3] C.L. Phillips and R.D. Harbor, Feedback Control Systems, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 4th edition, 2000.

[4] G.J. Thaler, Automatic Control Systems, West, St. Paul, MN, 1989.

[5] William A. Wolovich, Automatic Control Systems, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Fort Worth, TX, 3rd edition, 1994.

[6] Graham C. Goodwin, Stefan F. Graebe, and Mario E. Salgado, Control System Design, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2001.

 

Last Day to Drop without Dean’s Permission: Friday, September 29.

No classes October 10, Columbus Day nor November 23, Thanksgiving

 

COURSE CALENDAR

Day
Topic
Chapter(s)
Tuesday Aug. 29
Introduction
1
Thursday Aug. 31
Introduction and Block diagrams
1,3
Tuesday Sept. 5
First-order systems
5
Thursday Sept 7
Block diagrams
3
Tuesday Sept 12
Second-order systems
5
Thursday Sept 14
Second-order systems
5
Tuesday Sept 19
Second-order systems
5
Thursday Sept 21
Types of control actions (material not on Test 1)
5
Tuesday Sept 26
Stability analysis with the Routh array
5
Thursday Sept. 28
Steady-state error
5
Tuesday Oct 3
Steady-state error
5
Thursday Oct 5
Test 1, Chapters 1, 3, and 5 
1,3,5
Thursday Oct 12
Introduction to pole movement, the root locus
6
Tuesday Oct 17
Root locus
6
Thursday Oct 19
Root locus
6
Tuesday Oct 24
Introduction to compensator design (material not on Test 2)
7
Thursday Oct 26
Compensator design using root locus
7
Tuesday Oct 31
Compensator design using root locus
7
Thursday Nov 2
Compensator design using root locus
7
Tuesday Nov 7
Polar plots and the Nyquist stability criterion
8
Thursday Nov 9
Review of Bode plots
8
Tuesday Nov14
Relative stability, gain and phase margins
8
Thursday Nov16
Test 2, Chapters 6,7 and 8
6,7,8
Tuesday Nov 21
Gain and phase margins
8
Tuesday Nov 28
Compensator design using Bode plots, phase lag
9
Thursday Nov 30
Compensator design using Bode plots, phase lag, phase lead 
9
Tuesday Dec 5
Compensator design using Bode plots, phase lead
9
Thursday Dec 7
Compensator design using Bode plots, lag-lead
9
Thursday Dec 14
Final Exam, Comprehensive, Chaps. 7, 8, 9 emphasized 
-all-

 

HOMEWORKS

 

PROJECTS