Prelab 4

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A Longer Prelab

This is a longer prelab covering all continuous time material we have studied so far. It is intended to prepare you for the maglev design problem next week, and show you some computational tools for system analysis.

The first three problems focus on three key concepts:

  1. The derivation and use of transfer (or system) functions.
  2. Modeling systems using interconnected block diagrams.
  3. Frequency response and sinusoidal-steady-state.

The last two prelab problems use these concepts in controller design. They introduce the lead controller, an alternative to PID; describe phase-margin based design, an alternative to placing natural frequencies; and give examples of using computational tools to aid in design.