Simulink Control Design 3.0

Tuning PID Controllers

Simulink Control Design provides automatic gain tuning capabilities for Simulink PID Controller blocks. Initial tuning of a PID controller is accomplished with a single click. The product uses a proprietary tuning method that computes the PID gains based on the closed-loop performance that you desire. An initial controller is suggested based on an analysis of your system dynamics. You can then interactively adjust the response time in the GUI. Advanced options are available to tune the PID controller by specifying the desired bandwidth and phase margin. The GUI also provides several plots that you can use to analyze the controller behavior. For example, you can use a step reference tracking plot or an open-loop Bode plot to compare the performance of the current design with the design corresponding to initial gain values.

Using Simulink Control Design to automatically tune the gains of the PID Controller block (red, top). To automatically compute PID controller gains, you open the PID Controller block mask (left) and press the "Tune…" button. The PID Tuner GUI (right) opens up with an automatically tuned design.