Tune-domain techniques

There are a variety of feedback controller tuning methods. Probably 80 percent of all loops are tuned experimentally by an instrument mechanic, and 75 percent of the time the mechanic can guess approximately what the settings will be by drawing on experience with similar loops. We will discuss a few of the time-domain methods below. In subsequent chapters we will present other techniques for tinding controller constants in the Laplace and frequency domains. 

This chapter concentrates on methods suitable for control-flow-dominated applications. A flexible library of complex building blocks, including predefined I/O interfaces and memories, is targeted. Emphasis is placed on scheduling and allocation techniques tuned to this domain and on the interactive environment in which the tools are embedded. The demonstrator of this chapter is a complete telephone answering machine controller. 

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