Ziegler–Nichols method - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

The Ziegler–Nichols tuning method is a heuristic method of tuning a PID controller. It was developed by John G. Ziegler and Nathaniel B. Nichols. It is performed by setting the I (integral) and D (derivative) gains to zero. The "P" (proportional) gain, K p is then increased (from zero) until it reaches the ultimate gain K u , at which the output of the control loop has stable and consistent oscillations. K u and the oscillation period T u are used to set the P, I, and D gains depending on the type of controller used:

These 3 parameters are used to establish the correction u ( t ) from the error e ( t ) via the equation:

u ( t ) = K p ( e ( t ) + 1 T i ∫ 0 t e ( τ ) d τ + T d d e ( t ) d t )

Evaluation

The Ziegler-Nichols tuning creates a "quarter wave decay". This is an acceptable result for some purposes, but not optimal for all applications.

This tuning rule is meant to give PID loops best disturbance rejection.

It yields an aggressive gain and overshoot – some applications wish to instead minimize or eliminate overshoot, and for these this method is inappropriate.

References

Ziegler–Nichols method Wikipedia

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