Rating: 
Summary: A Practical Hads-On Guide to Control System Design
Review: This book is NOT just another academically oriented controls textbook. This book focuses exclusively on servo and motion systems. It presents highly complex topics, but avoids relying on detailed mathematical analysis, and instead emphasizes practical approaches that can be applied by anyone working on drive and motion systems. The book coveys complex topics in a clear and enlightening manner. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of this book is its use of ModelQ®. ModelQ® is a Windows© based modeling and simulation program written by the author and available at his website. It is used to illustrate and demonstrate various control concepts. ModelQ® has a very easy and intuitive user interface. ModelQ also contains a Digital Signal Analyzer (DSA). The DSA is a graphical display of the Bode plot (gain and phase) of the transfer function for the selected system output vs. the selected input. While this topic is heavily covered in most college controls courses and textbooks, few convey an understanding of the frequency domain performance of systems as clearly as this book and ModelQ®. The book has an excellent chapter on compliance and resonance. The effects of gearboxes, direct coupling, damping, and inertia mismatch are explored in depth. The PID is examined extensively. Six forms of PID are presented. The effects and interaction of each PID term is discussed. The strengths and drawbacks of each controller, as well as tradeoffs in simplicity and complexity, are summarized in a comparison chart. A flow chart to select the best controller structure based on needs is presented. Traditional tuning, such as "seat of the pants" and Zielger-Nichols is discussed. A flow chart based on frequency zoned tuning is presented that results in a simple, repeatable tuning technique. An entire chapter is provided on feed-forward techniques and how feed forward can be used to dramatically improve control system performance without any risk of stability problems. The chapter on motors covers motor design and construction, synchronous, induction, and reluctance motors, magnetics theory, motor speed- torque curves, linear & rotary motors, commutation, field weakening, power bridges, modulation, and flux-vector algorithms. I believe you will thoroughly enjoy the Control System Design Guide. This book covers a broad range of control topics, and addresses them in the framework of servo systems in a practical and application-oriented manner. Whether you are a controls technician or advanced degreed control engineer, this book will definitely make you more skilled and practiced in the art of control system design for servo and motion systems. I highly recommend Control Systems Design Guide as an extremely practical and thorough servo system controls reference.
Rating: 
Summary: Good tutorial of basic control system
Review: This is a really good book that simplified control system for the real world. Most text spend too much time on theory and analysis and end the discussion with a bunch of equations and graphs without explaining how to implement the design. This book covers both analog and digital control, and lets you download a software from the author's web site. This software, ModelQ, lets you play with various parameters so you can see how the system behaves when it is not optimized.One drawback with the book is it only covers PID control and its variants, but doesn't cover state-space control. While state-space control may be considered "overkill" by many control engineers, state-space is used in industry. The decision to use state-space is often not in the hands of individual engineers, so it may not be an option to ignore state-space. It would be nice if Mr. Ellis could cover state-space in his next edition of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Good tutorial of basic control system
Review: This is a really good book that simplified control system for the real world. Most text spend too much time on theory and analysis and end the discussion with a bunch of equations and graphs without explaining how to implement the design. This book covers both analog and digital control, and lets you download a software from the author's web site. This software, ModelQ, lets you play with various parameters so you can see how the system behaves when it is not optimized. One drawback with the book is it only covers PID control and its variants, but doesn't cover state-space control. While state-space control may be considered "overkill" by many control engineers, state-space is used in industry. The decision to use state-space is often not in the hands of individual engineers, so it may not be an option to ignore state-space. It would be nice if Mr. Ellis could cover state-space in his next edition of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Controls systems A-Z
Review: While the 1st edition of the book is itself a good text on the subject, how could this book be improved upon? It appears that the 1st edition is at best only an outline of what appears it the 2nd edition. Each of the subjects is covered in much more detail than the 1st edition. New subjects have also been added. Just the section on motors makes this book worth reading. The appendix is very interesting reading, and could almost be made into a quick reference book itself! The book is well organized, and subjects are presented in a logical sequence: The Z domain makes a lot more sense if one first understands the S domain. The writing style is excellent, and has a way of explaining potentially confusing material, in a simple, clear manner. The mathematics throughout the book helps explain the much of theory, but if the reader doesn't care for the math, an understanding of the subject can still be gained without it. Many college texts approach the subject from theory alone. While this book also provides the theory, it also presents the practical application side in a perfect balance. It is apparent that the author has worked in the real world. Also appreciated was the free Model-Q software examples sprinkled through out the book. They enable a reader the ability to experiment with the examples, and gain a better understanding of each of the subjects. While this text is a very thorough, where a reader wants to explore a subject further, the numerous references to other sources are everywhere. No matter how much you think you may know about the subject, there is something everyone can learn from this book. This book is control systems A-Z, and is the best book I have seen on the subject. I highly recommend this book to anyone regardless of his or hers expertise level. -Dave Trapasso
Rating:
Summary: Controls systems A-Z
Review: While the 1st edition of the book is itself a good text on the subject, how could this book be improved upon? It appears that the 1st edition is at best only an outline of what appears it the 2nd edition. Each of the subjects is covered in much more detail than the 1st edition. New subjects have also been added. Just the section on motors makes this book worth reading. The appendix is very interesting reading, and could almost be made into a quick reference book itself! The book is well organized, and subjects are presented in a logical sequence: The Z domain makes a lot more sense if one first understands the S domain. The writing style is excellent, and has a way of explaining potentially confusing material, in a simple, clear manner. The mathematics throughout the book helps explain the much of theory, but if the reader doesn't care for the math, an understanding of the subject can still be gained without it. Many college texts approach the subject from theory alone. While this book also provides the theory, it also presents the practical application side in a perfect balance. It is apparent that the author has worked in the real world. Also appreciated was the free Model-Q software examples sprinkled through out the book. They enable a reader the ability to experiment with the examples, and gain a better understanding of each of the subjects. While this text is a very thorough, where a reader wants to explore a subject further, the numerous references to other sources are everywhere. No matter how much you think you may know about the subject, there is something everyone can learn from this book. This book is control systems A-Z, and is the best book I have seen on the subject. I highly recommend this book to anyone regardless of his or hers expertise level. -Dave Trapasso
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