A Simple Digital Simulation of Control Systems

ABSTRACT

Simulation is a well-established tool, with applications ranging from the study of information flow in business organizations to the investigation of the dynamic behaviour for the purpose of analysis and synthesis of complex mechanical systems and industrial processes.

The Analog Computer has been used for enumerable studies of continuous systems and has proved to be a powerful tool. However, the necessity for scaling the amplitudes and frequencies involved in the problem become more and more bothersome for the analog user as the size, complexity and accuracy requirements of the problem increase.

The power of analog computer is in its parallel nature of operation. The digital computer will calculate all quantities in an interval of time in serial order but it can be programmed to accomplish the overall calculation in effectively a parallel nature. With digital computer we have the benefits of high speed, storage, and also the scalings are avoided.

This paper describes one simple method of doing so. Here the usual prediction correction procedure, which is usually used in digital computer simulation is coupled with standard procedures for integration and differentiation, in order to simulate control systems. Finally, the simulation errors are discussed and the subroutines of some of the commonly used blocks are given.