Fractional-order feedback control of a poorly damped system

This study presents the design of a fractional-order proportional-integral (FOPI) controller for a mass-spring-damper system which is poorly damped. A model based design technique is used to design a FOPI controller for this system. A good performance of the closed loop control of a high order oscillatory system, such as the mass-spring-damper system, is with traditional proportional-integral (PI) controllers difficult to achieve. Therefore, a comparison between a traditional PI controller and a FOPI controller is performed by simulation. The simulation results show that the FOPI controller outperforms the classical PI controller resulting in an increased damping of the oscillations while maintaining a reasonable control effort.