Velocity tracking of a high-rise building elevator using PDF control

The control system design for a high-rise building elevator has been investigated in this study. For such a system, user ride comfort must be at an acceptable level while subjected to various disturbances in its operation. A nonlinear elevator model, including the DC motor and sensor sub-systems, was developed within the Simulink environment. The velocity of a 3200 kg elevator car, required to traverse a distance of 100 m in under 65 s, was the focus of the controller design. A baseline Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller was designed and its performance was compared with the proposed Pseudo-Derivative Feedback controller. Sensitivity to variations in the car mass was investigated to compare controller performance. Analysis of the time-domain parameters revealed that the Pseudo-Derivative Feedback controller achieved superior performance in rise time, settling time, total run time, sensitivity to variations in elevator car mass, disturbance rejection and tracking of the desired velocity signal.