A case study in digital control

The system described has shown that the use of a DSP in the role of measurement for control gives advantages over conventional systems. Increased speed, and the capability to use more complex algorithms leads to improved controller performance. Although designed specifically for a laboratory system, the necessity for improved measurement systems in industry is growing. Manufacturers are now starting to implement digital controllers, the performance of which will soon be limited by a lack of accurate information at high transfer rates. Parameters which were once deemed unmeasurable can now be constructed on-line and in real-time. This opens up greater possibilities for control system designers. Specialist hardware which was originally designed for communications processing will have an increasing role in control systems implementation due to the similarities in algorithm structure. Manufacturers have already seen this trend, and have begun to produce high performance devices specifically for these applications. It is now up to the systems engineer to recognise the advantages of the DSP for particular applications, and to use these to the full.