Tune, Optimise, Excel: A Suite of PID Study Machines

These compact PID study equipment are designed for benchtop use.

Servo/pendulum motor control system

SKU# CT9513

The Servo Pendulum system is part of the Matrix Process Control range of products.

This unique system allows students to understand the control of motors in two respects: to control the speed of a motor – a servo control system – and to control the position of a motor’s rotor – an inverting pendulum. One piece of equipment covers both problems.

The system consists of a powerful DC motor mounted on a rugged frame. A disc with captive nuts is attached to the DC motor and students are able to screw in 100-gram weights to different parts of the disc to alter the characteristics of the system. A single weight at 0 degrees forms an inverting pendulum.

The system includes full control and datalogging hardware, which is USB, Bluetooth, LAN/Wi fi compatible. Three software applications allow students to understand Manual control, On/Off control and PID control. The applications allow all parameters to be set, show a graphical representation of the performance of the system and allow data to be logged to a file for further analysis.

The system is shipped with a full API making it compatible with MATLAB or LabVIEW.

A full suite of worksheets, teacher’s notes and reference documentation is supplied.

Learning objectives

Servo control systems
Inverting pendulums
Drive systems and their scaling factors
Sensor characteristics, scaling factors, calibration
On/off control systems, oscillation, hysteresis
System time constants
P control systems and offset error
PI control systems
PID control systems
Control functions and block diagrams
Pseudocode implementations of P, PI and PID systems
Recognition of problems in PID systems
Integral wind up issues and overcoming them
Derivative filtering
Ziegler Nichols algorithm
Manual tuning of PID systems

Pictures are a representation of the product and correct at the time of uploading. Occasionally there may be changes to equipment for supplier or development reasons which may not be reflected. Please check the bill of materials before purchase to confirm the contents that you will receive.