Thursday, February 14, 2008

On-off control

On-off control

For example, a thermostat is a simple negative-feedback control: when the temperature (the "measured variable" or MV) goes below a set point (SP), the heater is switched on. Another example could be a pressure-switch on an air compressor: when the pressure (MV) drops below the threshold (SP), the pump is powered. Refrigerators and vacuum pumps contain similar mechanisms operating in reverse, but still providing negative feedback to correct errors.

Simple on-off feedback control systems like these are cheap and effective. In some cases, like the simple compressor example, they may represent a good design choice.

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