Design and Verification of PID Controller for Unstable System with Hardware-in-Loop Simulation

PID controllers have been a well-known device in domestic as well as industrial processes. However, tuning its parameters i.e. Proportional, Integral and Derivative can be a tedious task. In spite of acquiring the precise values theoretically, the odds of getting a similar outcome in practice is slim. Hence in this paper, we have taken an unstable system as our plant, modulated the signal using PID controller and obtained the parameters by implementing the Internal Model Control (IMC) technique. Furthermore, we tested this controller without making any physical prototype by using a dSPACE MicroLabBox which is an all-in-one development system designed for laboratories, capable of creating a virtual simulation of the control unit's working environment. At the end we built the controller and the plant on DSP and MicroLabBox respectively to create a hardware in loop (HiL) simulation and compared the theoretical and real time simulation results.