Control Systems

4

System parameters

4.1 Introduction

When a system is subject to, say, a unit step input it may give an output which eventually settles down to some steady state response. The response that it gives before settling down to this steady state is called its transient response. This chapter is about the parameters used to specify the transient response of systems and whether the transients lead to unstable systems.

For example, if we have a spring system (Figure 4.1) and suddenly apply a load to it, it has a transient response which results in it taking some time to reach its steady state value and also it is likely to overshoot the steady state value before it finally settles down to the steady state value. What factors can we change with the ...