Novel Op-Amp based Hardware Design of Analog PID Circuit to Control the Altitude of Quadcopter

Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID) control is a widely used control technique that can be used almost in all control applications. However, the practical implementation of the most often used digital PID control loop involves several aspects such as input signal sampling, Nyquist criterion, programming the control system on a microcontroller platform. On the other hand, processing of control signals on an analog continuous-time hardware platform overcomes the complexity of digital control synthesis, inaccuracies arising out of conversions between continuous and discrete time domains and are very much handy for simple control system design. Being aware that many electronic components can mimic the performance of real-world physical systems, this paper presents the design of an analog PID control system directly on the actual hardware to be used, with only limited electronic components and its application to a joystick controller for controlling the altitude of a quadcopter under varying load conditions and uncertainties. As the simulation of the design is carried out on the actual electronic circuit, various parameters like constraints, and propagation delay are considered from the initial stage of design, thereby giving a more practical, simple and straight forward approach.