Design of a Teaching Control Tool in Matlab for Continuous and Discrete Time Linear Systems

This paper presents a MATLAB-based application to teach the analysis and control concepts of continuous and discrete time linear systems using a graphical user interface (GUI) from Matlab. The GUI layout provides several tools which can develop different system analysis by employing a transfer function; it incorporates control systems (CS) fundamentals such as time-domain response, transfer function, pole-zero location, root locus, frequency domain response, steady-state error, disturbance response, controller design and tuning, Routh stability criteria, and Jury stability criteria, among others. For each simulation, users can view the output response as well as run several time domains plots. The control tool was evaluated based on student feedback, grades, satisfaction, and interest in CS.