Control System Toolbox Release Notes

Chapter 3
Control System Toolbox 5.0 Release Notes

New Features

This section introduces the new features and enhancements added in the Control System Toolbox 5.0 since the Control System Toolbox 4.2.1 (Release 11.0).

SISO Design Tool

The SISO Design Tool is a new visual interface that greatly simplifies the design of compensators for single-input, single-output (SISO) linear systems. Using editable root locus and Bode diagram views, you can graphically adjust the compensator gain, poles, and zeros, while monitoring the closed-loop responses and stability margins.

Other features include storing intermediate designs, discretizing the compensator, and visualizing design constraints.

For detailed examples of how to use the SISO Design Tool, see Designing Compensators in the Getting Started with the Control System Toolbox documentation.

LTI Viewer

Enhancements to the LTI Viewer include

• Data markers for scanning data off response plots and annotating plots with critical response values
• Adaptive S and Z grids for pole/zero and root locus plots
• Sharper Nyquist and Nichols plots with less user intervention
• Option to display all crossover frequencies for gain and phase margins

For detailed examples of how to use the LTI Viewer, see Analyzing Models in Getting Started with the Control System Toolbox.

Property and Preference Editors

You can use new Property and Preference Editors to set plot options such as titles, fonts, units, and grids. You can set toolbox preferences to persist from session to session, or set tool preferences for instances of the LTI Viewer and SISO Design Tool during a single session. You can also customize individual response plots using the Property Editor.

For a discussion of how to set properties and preferences, see Customization in the Control System Toolbox online help.

Algorithmic Enhancements

Enhancements to controls algorithms include

• A new function, allmargin, for computing all crossover frequencies and corresponding gain margins, phase margins, and delay margins
• A new algorithm for computing stability margins of SISO systems, including systems with delays
• An enhanced root locus plotting algorithm

New Demo Suite

The Control System Toolbox demos have been upgraded and considerably expanded. The new demo suite includes basic "getting started" tutorials, interactive demos, web-based GUI demos, and an extensive set of case studies covering dc motors, op amplifiers, disk drives, aircraft autopilots, heat exchangers, and steel rolling mills.

Documentation

The Control System Toolbox documentation has been thoroughly revamped and now includes the following:

• A new Getting Started with the Control System Toolbox manual, which introduces the main features of the toolbox through extended examples. The focus of this book is on basic control engineering tasks, including building models, analyzing model responses, and designing compensators. The examples presented use the LTI Viewer and SISO Design Tool extensively.
• Online documentation, including a complete function reference and a set of design case studies that demonstrate the advanced capabilities of the Control System Toolbox.

Control System Toolbox 5.1 Release Notes