PID Tuning Simulator

PID control is easy to write down and hard to get a feel for. On real hardware every experiment takes time, a bad gain can damage something, and noise hides what is going on. The PID Tuning Simulator lets you build that feel safely, with instant feedback.

What you can simulate

• A DC motor speed loop with a 12 V driver limit.
• A motor position loop, the classic servo.
• A heater with eight seconds of dead time, where patience beats aggressive gains.
• A lightly damped mass on a spring that rings unless you add derivative action.

Each system has realistic actuator limits, optional sensor noise and an optional load disturbance. You can switch anti-windup and derivative-on-measurement on and off, change the loop rate and filter the derivative term, and pin a response to compare it with the next one.

How it is checked

The plants are integrated with a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method at a much finer step than the controller. We check the simulator against closed-form results: with proportional control alone, the motor settles exactly 100 ÷ (1 + Kp × 15) RPM short of a 100 RPM target, and the steady error under a load disturbance matches the theoretical value to two decimal places.

Who it is for

Students learning control, makers tuning their first motor controller, and anyone who wants to show a colleague what integral windup looks like. Every setting is saved in the page link, so you can share exactly what you see.

Open the PID Tuning Simulator, then work through the guides below, from the basics to closed-loop motor speed control on real hardware.