PID Tuning

Automatically tune PID controller gains

PID tuning is the process of finding the values of proportional, integral, and derivative gains of a PID controller to achieve desired performance and to meet design requirements.

PID controller tuning appears easy, but finding the set of gains that ensures the best performance of your control system is a complex task. Traditionally, PID controllers are tuned either manually or using rule-based methods. Manual tuning methods are iterative and time-consuming, and if used on the hardware, can cause damage. Rule-based methods also have serious limitations: they do not support certain types of plant models, such as unstable plants, high-order plants, or plants with little or no time delay.

MATLAB^® and Simulink^® let you automatically tune PID controllers to achieve the optimal system design and to meet design requirements, even for plant models that traditional rule-based methods cannot handle well. You can:

• Model PID controllers in MATLAB using PID objects or in Simulink using PID Controller blocks
• Automatically tune PID controller gains and fine-tune your design interactively
• Tune multiple controllers in batch mode
• Tune single-input single-output PID controllers as well as multiloop PID controller architectures

Examples and How To

• PID Controller Design for a DC Motor 4:32 (Video)
• PID Control Design with Control System Toolbox 9:34 (Video)
• Automated PID Tuning (Example)
• PID Control Made Easy 49:45 (Webinar)
• Gain Scheduling of PID Controllers 5:25 (Video)
• Automatic Tuning of Multivariable Fixed-Structure Simulink Controller 4:40 (Video)

Software Reference

• PID Tuning with Control System Toolbox (Documentation)
• Automatic PID Tuning with Simulink Control Design (Documentation)
• PID Controller Block in Simulink (Documentation)
• PID (Documentation)

See also: PID control, control systems, system design and simulation, physical modeling, linearization, parameter estimation, Control Design Software