Systems Analysis and Control (H6104Z)
Systems Analysis and Control
Module H6104Z
Module details for 2025/26.
15 credits
FHEQ Level 5
Module Outline
Systems Analysis and Control provides you with an introduction to fundamental systems analysis and control topics, which help you understand how a system works and how to make a system work in a specific way. The system under study can be literally anything that is an interacting group of parts forming an integrated whole, such as a robot, a motor-vehicle, an aircraft, a train, a ship, or a computer disc-drive, and thus Systems Analysis and Control have active applications in these areas.
This module will start with describing a system using a set of mathematical tools, including differential equations, which enable one to predict how a system will respond to an external input when the time goes by. More advanced mathematical tools such as Laplace Transforms will be used to interpret the system’s behaviour in other dimensions, which will provide you with another perspective to understand a system’s behaviours.
This module will use mechanical and electrical systems as an example to practice how a system should be analysed in a formal way. It will introduce various techniques to regulate a system so that the system behaves in a desired specific way, e.g., a mobile robot moving with a certain speed. Hands-on experiments on mechanical and electrical systems will be conducted to testify the theoretical knowledge taught in the lectures. The widely-used software by engineers and researchers, Matlab and Simulink will be used in the workshops to solve problems by simulations.
Module Topics
Topics include:
• step and impulse response of first and second-order systems via Laplace transforms
• transfer functions, block diagrams
• polynomial and pole zero representations
• frequency response, modelling of simple mechanical and electrical systems, simple filters
• control objectives and feedback systems, open loop and closed loop transfer functions, use of Matlab
• error transfer functions, steady state errors, errors to inputs and disturbances
• pole-zero diagrams, root locus methods, bode and Nyquist diagrams
• stability via Routh-Hurwitz and simplified Nyquist criterion, gain and phase margins
• introduction to PID.
| Type | Timing | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Unseen Examination | Semester 1 Assessment Week 2 Thu 05:40 | 80.00% |
| Coursework | 20.00% | |
| Coursework components. Weighted as shown below. | ||
| Report | PS2 Week 1 | 100.00% |
Timing
Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.
Weighting
Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.
Dr Fan Zhang
Assess convenor
/profiles/554860
Wenqian Xie
Convenor
/profiles/576152
Prof Xiaohan Yu
Convenor
/profiles/531649
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