PID Based Air Heater Controller Implemented With Matlab/Simulink and Arduino Uno

The lack of demonstration tools for supporting laboratory course in the computer based control system laboratory Politeknik Negeri Semarang made students more difficult in understanding the basic concept of the control system. To alleviate this difficulty, a demonstration tool of Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) based air heater controller was built using Matlab/Simulink as its controller software and Arduino UNO as its data acquisition syatem. The selection of initial PID parameters is based on the combination of Relay Feedback method and Ziegler-Nichols formula. The performance criteria of the P, PD and PID controllers are based on: Rise Time, Settling Time, Overshoot and Steady State Error, within the temperature of 50°C, 60°C and 70°C. The best controller method is then selected based on its best performance criteria. The results showed that all controllers have adequate performance criteria, but the PID controller becomes the best controller with its maximum steady state errors of about 0.2°C, responsive and no overshoot. The availability of this demonstration tool hopefully can help students in understanding the concept of PID based controllers easily, especially when implemented using Matlab/Simulink and Arduino Uno for real air heater controller applications.