Unit Synopsis
This unit will enable you to develop an advanced understanding of digital control techniques applied in industrial control systems. The unit will introduce you to Z-transforms and Z-domain analysis of control systems through transformations. You will design and implement digital filters. You will learn discrete state space modelling and analysis of control systems. The unit will also equip you with knowledge of optimal control techniques such as linear quadratic filtering. You will also learn about important digital control implementation techniques such as proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control, pole placement control, and linear quadratic gaussian (LQG) control. Students will be required to attend a compulsory residential school in order to complete the laboratory experiments. Prior knowledge of the basic concepts of electrical circuit analysis, signals and linear systems, and control systems is assumed.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 9 |
| Credit Points | 12 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.25 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. In-class Test(s) | 30% |
| 2. Laboratory/Practical | 30% |
| 3. In-class Test(s) | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 33.33% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: In class
Students appreciated the physical presence of the unit coordinator during the residential schools.
This practice should be continued.
Due to the small number of students this time, it was not viable to visit the students during the residential school. Nevertheless, the Res School was conducted online successfully.
Source: SUTE
Students expected more interactions during the online delivery.
Frequent interactions during online delivery is recommended.
Interactions were there during online delivery.
Source: SUTE
Students expected clear unit requirements.
The unit requirements should be emphasised not only in Week 1 but also throughout the term.
Unit requirements were reminded to the students periodically during the online delivery.
Source: SUTE
Students expected useful learning materials.
The learning material should be linked to practical applications in Digital Control Systems.
Practical applications of Digital Control Systems were explained to the students during online delivery.
Source: SUTE
Students expected useful feedback.
Students should be provided with detailed feedback on their graded assessments.
Detailed feedback was provided with the graded assessments to the students.
Source: SUTE
Students expected useful knowledge/skills.
Learning outcomes in the unit should be emphasised to the students.
The Learning Outcomes expected from this unit were emphasised to the students during Week 1 and other times throughout the term.
Source: SUTE
Students had difficulty understanding the unit’s relevance to their degree.
The alignment of learning outcomes and assessments with the graduate attributes should be emphasised to the students.
The alignment of LOs with GAs were emphasised during Week 1 of the delivery.
Source: Head of Course (HoC)
Too many assessments and Learning Outcomes (LOs) are not properly matched to the assessments.
Update Unit Proposal (UUP) should be initiated to review and reduce the number of assessments.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Model discrete-time systems from continuous-time systems using methods such as zero-order hold (ZoH), bilinear transform and state-space discretisation
- Understand key concepts on linear time invariant (LTI) systems and the application of Z-transform
- Analyse the stability and performance of digital control systems using Z-domain techniques such as Jury’s Criterion, Root Locus, Bode plots, and Nyquist plots
- Design digital controllers using techniques such as Proportional (P), Proportional-Integral (PI), Proportional-Derivative (PD), and PID type controllers
- Design digital controllers using pole placement filters, linear quadratic gaussian (LQG) filters and state space techniques
- Document and communicate professional engineering information, including computer-based simulations.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | • | |||
| 2 - Laboratory/Practical | • | • | • | • | ||
| 3 - In-class Test(s) | • | • | • | |||
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Research | • | • | ||||
| 5 - Self-management | • | |||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | |||||
| 7 - Leadership | • | |||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |