This thesis studies the negative impact that control signal saturation may have on a controlled system. Different methods that are used to compensate for this problem are also studied and evaluated. Both sensitivity to disturbances and the effect the method has on the systems'ability to follow a reference signal will be examined. Stability will be discussed, but no conclusions whether the systems are stabilized or not can be drawn. Control signal saturation will lead to a slower behavior in general.

A wastewater treatment plant has the task to refine the wastewater from substances that should not be released into the environment. The decomposition process can, in a simple way, be described as follows: micro-organisms breathe oxygen and eat unwanted substances. The environment in which the micro-organism lives is known as sludge and the correct amount of oxygen available in the sludge is important for the decomposition to be effective. The oxygenation of the sludge alone stands for about 30% of the plant?s energy consumption.

In order to facilitate testing of anesthesia machines a patient simulator has been required by Maquet Critical Care AB. A patient simulator has been developed to reduce expensive and time consuming animal experiments and temporary lab arrangements. The patient simulator has been developed and designed to simulate human lungs with regards to anesthetic uptake, production of carbon dioxide and heating and moisturizing exhaled air.The system comprises a container and a test lung to simulate the volume and the dynamic of the human lung. The simulation of uptake of anesthetics has been implemented by pumping a fraction of the gas from the container through a bypass circuit with an active charcoal filter that adsorbs volatile anesthetics. The flow through the bypass circuit is generated by a pump and is controlled by a linear valve.The resulting performance of the patient simulator has fulfilled the requirements.