The ability to adjust the transient and steady-state response of a feedback control system
is a beneficial outcome of the design of control systems. One of the first steps in
the design process is to specify the measures of performance. In this chapter we introduce
the common time-domain specifications such as percent overshoot, settling
time, time to peak, time to rise, and steady-state tracking error. We will use selected
input signals such as the step and ramp to test the response of the control system. The
correlation between the system performance and the location of the system transfer
function poles and zeros in the s-plane is discussed. We will develop valuable relationships
between the performance specifications and the natural frequency and damping
ratio for second-order systems. Relying on the notion of dominant poles, we can
extrapolate the ideas associated with second-order systems to those of higher order.
