Basics of PID Control

This chapter introduces the basic ideas of proportional integral derivative (PID) control systems. There are four types of controllers that belong to the family of PID controllers: the proportional controller, the proportional plus integral controller, the proportional plus derivative controller and the PID controller. To understand the roles of the controllers, the chapter discusses each of the structures and the PID controller parameters. From the discussions, it establishes some basic knowledge about how to use these controllers in various applications. The chapter then discusses the classical tuning rules that have existed for the past several decades and have withstood the test of time. Next, it discusses the PID controller tuning rules that are derived based on a first order plus delay model. These tuning rules worked well in applications. Several examples are presented for evaluation of the tuning rules that are based on the first order plus delay model.