Construction and roles of computer simulator for digital controller design

The structure of a digital controller based on modern control theory is more complex than that of a PID controller. In implementing the digital control of an actual system by using the digital controller, we often encounter gaps between theory and practice e.g. quantization error, sampling error, modeling error, contaminated noise etc. In such cases, simulator plays an important role in detecting difficulties. This paper demonstrates the importance of the computer simulator for designing a digital controller. The controller and the simulator are constructed by different computer respectively, with a link between the blocks by analogue signals through the A/D, D/A converters. Through the simulator test, we can evaluate the digital controller; identify and solve difficulties in the digital control. The controller, which pasted the simulator test, is used identically in the actual system. This was a successful procedure for designing the controller. As an example, we successfully constructed the digital controller using the computer simulator for inverted pendulum control. We then compared the control results of simulator and actual equipment. Furthermore we commented on the construction of the computer simulator which exactly expressed the actual system.