Determination of optimum production tolerances by analog simulation

The electronic analog computer has been widely utilized in recent years to obtain optimum parameter values for various types of control systems. The procedure usually followed is to determine a control-system configuration by simplified analysis and then to program a computer in a realistic way, including all significant nonlinearities and appropriate random input disturbances. Next, a performance criterion of some sort is selected for the control system under study, and system parameters (gains, time constants, etc.) are varied until an optimum system is obtained. At this point, simulation activity usually ceases and is not resumed again unless the actual control system either cannot be constructed to obtain the desired parameter values or else fails to attain the level of performance indicated by the earlier simulation.