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ECE 88-523 System Theory

Lecture 1 (May 22, 2003)

Def. 1.1: A system is a number of components that work together in a systematic fash-
ion to achieve a particular goal.

Note 1.1: Throughout this course, we will call a model of a physical system simply a
system.

Note 1.2: The analytical study of physical systems consists of four parts:
1. Modeling
2. Characterization (development of mathematical description)
3. Analysis
4. Design
Def. 1.2: A system is characterized by a set of equations; e.g., linear equations, non-
linear equations, integral-differential equations, difference equations.

Example 1.1: A system can be characterized by “inputs” or “stimuli” and “outputs” or

“responses”.

Input System Output

x(. ) y(. )

Figure 1: Block-Diagram Representation

Note 1.3: A system may have different mathematical-equation description.

Example 1.2:
(a) In the above Example 1, if x(·) and y(·) are admissible “input-output families” or
“signal pairs”, then the system is completely characterized by input-output data.
i.e., the family {x(·), y(·)| x ∈ X, y ∈ Y }.
(b) System Transformation— Since the system transforms each input into a unique
corresponding output, we can represent its “action” by an abstract transformation
T (·) acting on an input x(·) to give a unique output y(·).
{y(·) = T [x(·)]; x ∈ X, y ∈ Y }
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T (·) is called an input-output transformation.

Def. 1.3: Continuous–Time Systems— are systems for which both the input and output
are continuous–time signals.

Def. 1.4: Signal— is defined as a varying quantity which conveys information, generally
about the state or behavior of a physical system; e.g., a force, voltage, power, volume per
unit time, etc.
Signals are represented mathematically as functions of one or more independent variables.

Convention: The independent variable of the mathematical representation of a signal is

referred to as time.

(a) Continuous–Time Signals— are signals that are defined at a continuum of times
and thus are represented by continuous variable functions (so-called analog signals).

(b) Discrete–Time Signals— are defined at discrete times, thus, the independent vari-
able takes on only discrete values. They are represented as sequences of numbers.

Example 1.3 (a) Find the describing equations for the following system, (b) the system
transformation. (c) Apply Laplace transformation to find the system transfer function.

R
+ +
x(t) C y(t)
− −
Figure 2: Block-Diagram Representation of a Simple RC circuit

(a) The describing differential equation is:

dy(t)
RC + y(t) = x(t) t0 ≤ t < ∞
dx(t)
(b) To find T [·], we rewrite the above equation as:

dy(t) 1 1
+ y(t) = x(t)
dx(t) RC RC
1
Let RC
= α, multiply both sides of the equation by eαt , we get
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dy
eαt + αeαt y(t) = αeαt x(t) t ≥ t0
dt
d £ αt
e y(t) = αeαt x(t)
¤
dt Z t
αt
¯t
e y(t) t0 =
¯ αeασ x(σ)dσ
t
Z 0t
eαt y(t) − eαt0 y(t0 ) = αeασ x(σ)dσ
t0
Z t
−α(t−t0 )
y(t) = e y(t0 ) + αe−α(t−σ) x(σ)dσ
t0

If the “initial condition” is y(t0 ) = 0, i.e., the system is initially at rest, then
Z t
1 − t−σ
y(t) , T [x(t)] = e RC x(σ)dσ t ≥ t0
t0 RC
(c). Let’s represent the system in Frequency Domain, as

R
+ +
1
X(s) Cs Y(s)
− −
Figure 3: Frequency-Domain Representation

RCsY (s) + Y (s) = X(s)

1
Y (s) = X(s)
1 + RCs
Y (s) 1
, T (s) =
X(s) 1 + RCs

Step 3 in any engineering study, after obtaining the mathematical description is to carry
analyses.

1. Quantitative analysis (under different input conditions)

2. Qualitative analysis (general properties such as stability, observability, controllabil-

ity)
Y (s)
Exercise 1.1: Find X(s)
for the circuit shown:
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1
L=
C

1
G=
X(s) R Y(s)

Note 1.4 Quantitative analysis is quite important because design techniques may often
evolve from this study.

Step 4 After analyses, is to design the system, e.g., fine turning and mass production.

Exercise 1.2 Let the input to the circuit of Example 1.2 be a unit-step function u(t):

1 ∀ t > 0+
½
u(t) =
0 ∀ t < 0−
Analyze the circuit.