College of Engineering

Department of Electrical Engineering

Lecture Notes 6
STATE FEEDBACK DESIGN
TRACKING PROBLEM
Prof. Rached Dhaouadi
E-mail: rdhaouadi@aus.edu
Tel: 06-515-2927

ELE444 Control Systems II

STATE FEEDBACK DESIGN

Tracking Problem

Consider an LTI system represented by its state equations

X A X B u

y C X Du
D
u

State space representation of a system

D
r

u
B

+
+

Closed loop with state feedback

ELE444 Control Systems II

We will consider the case of tracking a reference input ( r 0 )

and would like to study the steady state characteristic of the
system and see how well the output follows the reference.

For the tracking problem case, the control law is

urK X .
Substitution of this control law in the state equation yields the
state-space representation of the closed-loop system

X A X Br K X

A B K X B r

where

ACL A B K ,

BCL B

is the closed loop system matrix, and r is the system input.

The output equation will be

Y C X Dr K X C D K X D r

where

CCL C D K ,

DCL D

For good tracking performance we want y() r as t .

We can check this performance in the frequency domain by
the final value theorem:

y() lim y(t ) lim sY (s) lim sGCL (s) R(s)

t

s0

s0

ELE444 Control Systems II

for a unit-step reference R( s)

1
s

y() limGCL ( s) GCL (0)

s0

Therefore for good tracking performance the closed loop

transfer function from r to y should be approximately 1 at DC.
Closed loop transfer function:

GCL (s) CCL sI ACL BCL DCL

1

Let D 0 , then

GCL (0) C ACL B C ACL B

1

If GCL (0) 1 an extra gain N is used to scale the reference

input r so that

u NrK X

r
N

u
B

+
+

+
+

ELE444 Control Systems II

Now we have

X A X B N r K X

A B K X B Nr
and the closed loop transfer function is

GCL (s) C sI ACL B N

1

If we select

1
1
N

1
1
C ACL B C A BK B
then, y() r as t

ELE444 Control Systems II

Example 1:
Consider the following system

x1 1 1 x1 0
x 3 2 x 1u
2
2
x1
y 1 0
x2
1. Design a state feedback controller to place the closed loop
poles at -2, -3.
2. Design the required gain to have a good tracking
performance.
Solution:
From the previous section, first we found

K 5 2

next

1
1
N

1
1
C ACL B C A BK B
6

ELE444 Control Systems II

Tracking Problem:
A formal way to compute N is to change the control law in
the new equivalent form
Nu

Nx
r

Uss

Xss
+
_

+
+

+
+

N x is a vector gain used to modify the reference command r

to generate a feedforward state command X ss .
N u is a gain used to modify the reference command r to
generate a feedforward control input to the system U ss .

X A X B u

y C X Du
In steady state we would like to have
X 0
X X ss
u U ss
yr
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ELE444 Control Systems II

0 A X ss B U ss

r C X ss D U ss

Put these equations in matrix form:

A B X ss 0
C D U r

ss
The steady state values be computed as:
1

X ss A B 0
U C D 1 r

ss
Let X ss N x .r and U ss Nu .r
1

Then:

N x A B 0
N C D 1 ,

u

and the control law

u U ss K ( X ss X )
Nu r K ( N x r X )
( N u KN x )r KX

N Nu K N x

ELE444 Control Systems II

Example 2:
Consider the system in example 1

x1 1 1 x1 0
x 3 2 x 1u
2
2
x1
y 1 0
x2
1. Design a state feedback controller to place the closed loop
poles at -2, -3.
2. Design the required gain to have a good tracking
performance.
Solution:
From the previous section, first we found

K 5 2

next

0
Nx A B
N C D 0
1
u

1

and the gains are

1
N x , N u 1
1

N Nu K N x

N 6
9

ELE444 Control Systems II

Example 3:
Consider a system with the following transfer function

1
G( s) 2
s 1
1. Design a state feedback controller to stabilize the system
and place the closed loop poles at -1, -2.
2. Design the required gain to have a good tracking
performance.

10

ELE444 Control Systems II

Design of Servo Systems:

We consider the problem of designing a type-1 servo system
when the plant involves an integrator.
- Assume that the control signal and the output signal are
scalars.
- Assume also that the output is equal to one of the state
variables (for example y=x1).
Then, it can be shown that the tracking gain N is equal to
k1.
The state feedback control system can be arranged in the
following configuration.

_
+

k1

+
-

+
+

+
+

y=x1

Ks

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ELE444 Control Systems II

u Nr K X

u k1r k1

k2

x1
x
kn 2


xn

u k1 r x1 0 k 2

u k1 r x1 K s X
Where,

x1
x
kn 2


xn

K s 0 k2 kn

The closed loop system is an asymptotically stable

system. y( ) will approach the constant value r (of the
step input), and u( ) will approach zero.

X ( ) 0 A BK X ( ) B k1r

X ( ) A BK B k1r
1

12

ELE444 Control Systems II