Simulation and design of a digital control system with TUTSIM

The author discusses the use of an educational popular continuous simulation language for designing a digital control system. The TUTSIM dynamic simulation program is capable of simulating control systems with a digital controller in the loop. A built-in parameter estimation routine is employed to achieve control parameter optimization. PID control of a first order system with time delay is presented as an illustration of the technique. However, because the optimization is based on simulation of the system at various points in the control parameter space, the method is applicable to nonlinear systems and more complex digital control algorithms. Furthermore, the system error used and the performance index based on the error are easily changed