Hi friends;

I'm a final year student. PID control has been used more than 50 years. Now I understand how PID control is working. I'm really interested in the history of PID control. Could anyone suguest/provide me some useful story about PID control. who invented the PID control?

Thanks a lot in advance.

 

I’ve never heard any reference to "who invented PID" - but if you’re truly interested in the history of the subject, then you might find this useful:

Ziegler and Nichols studied the subject way back in the 1940’s - long before electronic computers and PLC’s came along - some of their original tuning methods are still being used successfully today - so no, they didn’t quite invent PID but a lot of people consider them to be something like the "godfathers" of the subject - it took me QUITE a lot of research to find an actual copy of their original publication - but if you’re interested, it’s available from:

the Linda Hall Library, Kansas City, MO
800-662-1545 or 816-363-4600
[email protected]
www.lindahall.org

ask for "Optimum Settings for Automatic Controllers" by John G. Ziegler
from ASME Transactions - the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
volume 64 #8 - November 1942 - pages 759-768

the last time I checked, this title was too old to be listed on the website - I had to phone to get mine - it was about $15.00 if I remember correctly - personally I consider it well worth the money -

hope this helps

 

Hello K. Piraba,

To start with, congratulations for your achievement of understanding how PID control works! Although PID control is based on such a simple thing than negative feedback it is a whole
world with its several modifications, applications, design methods and specifications.

PID control is strongly related to feedback as it is just a one (but widely spread!) realization of it. There was PID control before the second world war (World War II). The era of feedback control as we know it was really launched at the time Harold S. Black came up with his invention on negative feedback amplified at Bell laboratories in 1927.

There are several publications on history of feedback control (including PID control, of course). For more details, you can get a brief reference list from me by giving your e-mail address.

-Pasi A.

 

I think Walter Driedger has made a copy of the paper available on his web
site - http://www.driedger.ca/

Bruce.

 

PID control is actually three mode control, proportional, integral, and deritive. On/off and proportional control has been around a long time. Romans used flow control in their aquducts. Eli Whitney used the centrifugal speed controllers for steam engines in the 1900's. PID control was more of a evolution not an invention in my opinion.

 

> There are several publications on history of feedback control (including PID control, of course). For more details, you can get a brief reference list from me by giving your e-mail address.
>
> -Pasi A.

Though, I am not K.Piraba I would also like
to get the reference list you mention. My
e-mail address: [email protected]
Yours sincerely
Ariel Burbaickij

 

IMO one of the most fascinating pieces of equipment I have ever seen was an old pneumatic PI controller consisting of a T flapper and pneumatic nozzles operating on the flapper. Gains were set by adjusting needle valves. The device was perhaps 80-90 years old and had been refurbished and placed on display. It was an amazing piece of ingenuity. PID control has been a process of evolution dating back many many decades. One could even assert that a human operator sitting and watching a process and adjusting some parameter is using the principles of PID control, though he may not be aware. How about roasting marshmallows where distance and speed of rotation are your CVs and radiant heat felt and color observed are your PVs? A child on the other end of the stick may not be aware of it, but he is applying the same principles.

 

Hello Pasi A,
Thanks you very much for your value information. I would like to read publications on history of feedback control (including PID control, of course). Could you give me brief reference list to my e-mail address.
( [email protected] )
Best Regards
K.Piraba

 

Maxwell wrote a detailed mathematical analysis of governors in the 1860's. If I remember correctly his paper was more concerned with dealing with stability issues which had not been satisfactorily addressed by the inventors/designers of the governors. Other papers followed. Some quite early papers suggested adding first (and second) error derivative and reset action. Otto Mayr wrote a book on the origins of automatic control. I think it may have been him who had a paper published in "Scientific American" many years ago. Somewhere I have a book with a collection of some of the early papers. In my shed I also have every copy of "Scientific American" from some time before 1960 to about 1980. I know one of the articles on the history of automatic control is in one of those. There seems to be sufficient interest to warrant searching through my piles of stuff to see what I can find but it may have to wait until the weekend.

Vince

 

Hello Ariel,

I decided to put a few references here for you and others interested in them.

1. Åström&Hägglund. "PID controllers: theory, design and tuning". 2nd edit., ISA, 1995.
- Look chapter 3.11 References: there is a brief description on history of PID control and several references (like ref. 2-3 below)

2. Stock J.T. "Pneumatic process controllers: the ancestry of the proportional-integral-derivative controller". Trans. of the Newcomen Society, 59, pp. 15-29, 1987-88.

3. Blickley G. "Modern control started with Ziegler-Nichols tuning". Control Engineering, Octoper, pp. 11-17.

4. Bernstein D.S. "Feedback control and the history of technology" (Aerospace Eng. Dep., Univ. of Michigan).

5. Bennett S. "A history of control engineering 1800-1930", London: Peter Peregrinus Ltd, 1979.

6. Bennett S. "A history of control engineering 1930-1955", London: Peter Peregrinus Ltd, 1993.

I am sure that you can find several others by looking at the references on these books and papers.

With regards,
-Pasi A.

 

I believe that the Taylor Instrument Company developed the PID controller. In the mid-1930's, Taylor developed the "double" response unit which was integrated with the Taylor Fulscope proportional controller. This would later be called reset and even later integral action. It 1938, while trying to control a rayon shredder, Taylor developed derivative action which was called "Pre-Act." John Ziegler and Nathaniel Nichols were employees of the Taylor Instrument Company. CONTROL magazine reported in its December 1999 issue that Ziegler and Nichols developed the first commercial controller that put P, I, and D all in the same place.

You can find the history of process control in a Control Engineering magazine supplement October 1990, Intech magazine issues June 1990 and June 1995, and CONTROL magazine issue December 1999.

Bill Mostia
===============================
William(Bill) L. Mostia, Jr. P.E.
Partner
exida.com
Worldwide Excellence in Dependable Automation
[email protected](b) [email protected](h)
www.exida.com 281-334-3169
These opinions are my own and are offered on the basis of Caveat Emptor.
Bill Mostia

 

Hellow there...
I am third year student doing control engineering at University of sheffield(England).
My final year project is about PID controllers.
I have another refrence for the history of PID control:

(Advances in PID control),Kiong et al,(1999)

anybody would like to contact me:
[email protected]