What does "tuning" a controller entail?

Tuning a controller primarily involves adjusting the controller parameters—such as proportional gain, integral time, and derivative time—to achieve desired performance characteristics in a control system. This process is critical to ensuring the system responds effectively to various inputs and disturbances while maintaining stability, minimizing error, and optimizing response time.

When tuning, the technician analyzes the system’s response to changes or disturbances and makes precise adjustments to these parameters. The goal is to achieve optimal performance, which may include faster response times, reduced overshoot, and improved stability, depending on the specific requirements of the application.

The other options do not accurately describe the tuning process. Changing the physical layout of the control system pertains to system design rather than tuning, while replacing the existing controller with a new model suggests a complete hardware change rather than parameter adjustments. Implementing additional sensors and actuators might enhance system capabilities but does not relate directly to the tuning of existing controller parameters. Tuning focuses solely on optimizing the performance of the existing system through parameter modification.