Tuning PID controllers with Symmetric Send-on-Delta sampling strategy

A procedure for tuning PID controllers with SSOD sampling for FOPTD systems is proposed. It is based on the definition of a new robustness measure to avoid limit cycle oscillations, called the Tsypkin margin (MT). This margin is based on the Tsypkin method and does not rely on the attenuation of high order harmonics, as the describing function approaches require. Therefore, the avoidance of limit cycle oscillations can be guaranteed for any system, as a difference with the describing function based procedures. The procedure allows to obtain the PID controller that minimizes the disturbance IAE while fulfilling constraints on robustness to oscillations and on control action bumps due to the SSOD sampling. A freely available Java tool has been developed in order to simplify the application of the tuning procedure. In case of a non FOPTD system, it first calculates an approximate FOPTD model. The paper shows that the derivative filter parameter, N is a critical tuning parameter in order to find a compromise between performance and control action bumps