LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
School of Engineering
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
ELE443 Control System LAB
Fall 2013
Lecture 3: Function files & Graphs
Introduction
Script files are used to write programs, to save and to run
them using MATLAB commands.
Script files contain list of MATLAB commands.
Script are saved in “filename.m”
Select File menu in the MATLAB toolbar:
File>New>M-file
The Editor window will open.
2
Creating Script Files
Commands in M-files are executed in the order they are listed.
Script files can be edited and executed many times.
The program is automatically saved when Run button is pressed.
Run
command
3
Breakpoints
Breakpoints can be placed in script files for
debugging.
A breakpoint can be set for every line.
Place the cursor on the desired line.
Press F12 or choose Debug>Set/Clear Breakpoint from Editor
toolbar.
Program stops and Workspace variables are updated
once the program reaches a breakpoint
Press Continue button to resume the program
4
Example of M-file
5
Function files
MATLAB has its own set of built-in and toolbox functions
Example: sin, exp, rand, plot…
User can write his own function and executes it.
Function files are written using the Editor Window.
A function has a name, can have arguments and output
arguments.
The first line in Function files has the following format:
function [out1,…,outm] =function-name(arg1,…,argn)
[out1,…,outm] is an array that returns m variables
(arg1,…,argn) is a list of n arguments that the function
takes.
6
Function Files
function[out1,…,outm]=function-name(arg1,…,argn)
Function-name
It’s the function name.
The M-file should have the same name as function-name
M-files that contain functions are saved as
Function-name.m
In order to call a user defined function, function-name.m
should exist in the Current Directory.
7
Example of function files
Let’s define a function that transforms the polar coordinates
into their corresponding Cartesian coordinates.
Let’s name the function pol_to_cart.
This function has 2 input arguments:
r and theta
This function has 2 output arguments:
x and y
8
Example of function files
This function is saved as pol_to_cart.m file
9
Calling User defined functions
>> [x,y]=pol_to_cart(1,pi/6)
x=
0.86603
y=
User defined functions can run in 0.5
Command Window, or in Script Files or
in other Function Files.
10
Function Overloading
The behavior of a function can be modified depending on the
number of input and output arguments.
Commands:
nargin: Number of Input arguments
nargout: Number of Output arguments
Example:
function [P]=integral(t,x,flag)
if nargin==2
dt=t(2)-t(1);
P=sum(x)*dt;
elseif nargin==3
dt=t(2)-t(1);
P=cumsum(x).*dt;
end
11
Saving Data
MATLAB uses its own platform independent file
format for saving data files.
Files have a “.mat” extension
save is used to save variables from the workspace to a named
file (by default: matlab.mat if no filename is given)
save filename – saves entire workspace to filename.mat
save var1 var2 … filename – saves named variables to filename.mat
By default save overwrites an existing file of the same name,
use –append to append data to an existing file
Variables of the same name are always overwritten!!!
save var1 var2 … filename -append
Data is recovered using load command
load filename – loads entire .mat file
load filename var1 var2 … - loads named vars
12
Prompting for User input
Theinput function can be used to
prompt the user for numeric or string
input.
>>x = input(‘Enter a value for x’);
>>YourName = input(‘Enter your name’, ‘s’);
13
MatLab Programming
Program Control Statements:
Conditional Control (if, switch)
Loop Control (for, while, continue, break)
Error Control (try, catch)
Program Termination (return)
14
Conditional Control (if statement)
clear;
x=-2;
y=10;
if(x<0)
angle=180+atand(y/x)
else
angle=atand(y/x)
end
15
Loop Control (For loop)
Loop Expression Format:
for index = start:increment:end
statements
end
Example:
for n = 2:size(x,2)
x(n) = 2 * x(n - 1);
end
The command break exits a loop
16
Comparison of break and return
break is used to escape the current loop.
return is used to escape the current function.
Remark: an infinite loop can be broken by typing “Ctrl+C”
17
Plotting
MATLAB is used extensively to plot graphs.
Different parameters can be modified in MATLAB figures:
Number of subplots in a figure
Scale (i.e. Linear or Logarithmic)
Grid, colors, labels and legends.
Consider the plotting example:
t=0:0.0001:3;
f=exp(-t).*sin(2*pi*10*t);
plot(t,f), grid
Note: t and f have the same size
18
Plot command
19
Plotting a function
The Figure can be edited and labeled such that:
ylabel('F(t)')
xlabel('t')
title('F(t)=e^{-t}.sin(20\pit)')
axis([0,2,-1,1]) % axis([xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax])
legend('F(t)')
20
Plotting a function
21
Plotting 2 curves on the same graph
t=0:0.0001:3;
t=0:0.0001:3; f=exp(-
f=exp(- t).*sin(2*pi*10*t);
t).*sin(2*pi*10*t); g=cos(2*pi*t);
g=cos(2*pi*t); plot(t,f,'r‚)
plot(t,f,'r',t,g,'b--') 2 ways
hold
legend('f(t)','g(t)') plot(t,g,'b--')
legend('f(t)','g(t)')
Use the help command to get more information on
the plot command.
22
Plotting 2 curves on the same graph
23
Plotting 2 curves in 1 graph window
t=0:1e-4:3;
f=exp(-t).*sin(2*pi*10*t);
g=cos(2*pi*t);
subplot(2,1,1),plot(t,f),grid
subplot(2,1,2),plot(t,g),grid
subplot(M,N,n) creates an array of M-by-N graphs in a
figure window, where n is the number of a selected graph
in the array.
24
Plotting 2 curves in 1 graph window
25
Plotting 4 curves in 1 graph window
t=0:1e-4:3;
f= exp(-t).*sin(2*pi*10*t);
g= cos(2*pi*t);
y= tan(2*pi*t);
w= sinc(t);
subplot(2,2,1),plot(t, f),grid
subplot(2,2,2),plot(t, g),grid
subplot(2,2,3),plot(t, w),grid
subplot(2,2,4),plot(t, y),grid
26
Plotting 4 curves in 1 graph
27
Plotting curves in different graph windows
To open a new window and to plot a curve, we use the
command: figure
Example:
t=0:0.1:10;
y1=sin(2*pi*t);
y2=exp(-0.5*t)*sin(2*pi*t);
plot(t,y1)
figure,
plot(t,y2)
In this way, the first graph stays in the first window, and a new
window opens and displays the second graph.
28
Plotting curves in different windows
29
Multidimensional Functions
Consider the function f(x, y):
f(x,y) is defined over the range:
-2<x<2
-3<y<3
To define the domain of definition of this
multidimensional function, we use the command:
ndgrid
30
Multidimensional Functions
Plotting F(x,y) is done by:
x=-2:0.2:2;
y=-3:0.2:3;
[X,Y]=ndgrid(x,y);
f=X.*exp(-X.^2-Y.^2);
mesh(X,Y,f)
Use the help command to further understand ndgrid
and mesh commands.
It plots in a 3-Dimensional Space the points whose
coordinates are in matrices X, Y and f.
31
Multidimensional Functions
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
f
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
3
2
2
1 1.5
1
0 0.5
-1 0
-0.5
-2 -1
-1.5
-3 -2
y
x
32
Looking Forward
This is the last lecture concerning the basics of MATLAB.
You are expected to know and understand these three
lectures very well.
The upcoming three lectures will cover:
Linear Systems.
Control System Design Control Systems Design and
Analysis Under MATALB
Simulink and Filters
Using Simulink to simulate
and observe the behavior of
controlled systems
+
Simulating Butterworth
33 filters
