Section 5.1 - Introduction to PID
Advanced Mechanism Control
This lesson will introduce you to the purpose of PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) control and the foundational concepts behind it. You will start by exploring whether simple percent output is sufficient for controlling mechanisms and the challenges of achieving precise speed and position control. The lesson will use a driving analogy to explain the three components of PID: the Proportional term (P), which controls the immediate response; the Integral term (I), which sums past errors to maintain a setpoint like cruise control; and the Derivative term (D), which anticipates future behavior to prevent overshooting, similar to braking in a car. To deepen your understanding, you will review PID graphs to illustrate oscillations and learn effective tuning strategies for each parameter, beginning with setting P, followed by D, and finally I, if necessary.