When to Use Intermittent Control for Stabilization?

Intermittent control is a control approach in which continuous control law is applied, but is switched on and off based on thresholds in the controlled variable. This control strategy combines both open loop and closed loop system operations segmented by event-driven thresholds, and has been observed to drive the system towards improved performance in terms of stability, energy efficiency or settling time. While intermittent control finds wide range of applications in many natural as well as industrial fields, there are very few studies that provide simple fundamental insights relating to intermittency and stabilization. In this paper, a systematic simulation analysis is employed to generate fundamental insights about intermittent control and its domain of application. Through few simulation exercises and root locus analyses, the effect of intermittent control on system behaviours is studied in various categories of systems. The advantages of intermittent control in terms of energy expenditure and settling time performance have also been discussed.