Most PID tuning rules are based on first-order plus time delay assumption of the plant hence cannot ensure the best control performance. Using mordern optimization techniques, it is possible to tune a PID controller based on the actual transfer function of the plant to optimize the closed-loop performance.

This submission contains a function to perform optimal PID design based on four different performance indices, e.g. the ISE, the IAE, the ITSE and the ITAE. A published m-file provides two 4th-order examples to explain the usage and to show impact of using different performance indices.

The example file requires the znpidtuning function, which can be downloaded from http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/loadFile.do?objectId=18561&objectType=FILE