Proportional control chooses a control input proportional to the current tracking error. For the ideal controlled plant and constant reference signal , its ordinary differential equation is . With and initial condition , the exact response is
For , and , this gives and . To verify the formula, substitute it into the ordinary differential equation and check the initial condition; its decaying exponential function explains the approach to the goal.
With a constant control disturbance, setting gives the equilibrium point and steady-state tracking error . For , doubling the feedback gain from to reduces the offset from to . This improvement is a statement about the ideal model: it neglects feedback delay and measurement noise, so it does not establish that arbitrarily large feedback gains are safe. [ref]
In the first diagram's switched control disturbance experiment, and from give, for ,
Thus and . At the equilibrium point, the controller supplies to cancel the control disturbance. Proportional control needs a nonzero tracking error to produce that persistent correction.

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Proportional control is a fundamental concept in control systems and automation. It refers to a type of feedback control mechanism that adjusts the output of a system based on the proportional difference (error) between a desired setpoint and the measured process variable (current state of the system). ### Key Features of Proportional Control: 1. **Error Calculation**: The controller calculates the error by taking the difference between the desired value (setpoint) and the actual value (process variable).