Integral windup occurs when an integral term is used in a PID controller and the output becomes unstable (i.e., integral term building up drastically) over time.

How to prevent or reduce integral windup

  • Capping the integral sum
  • Decaying the integral sum over time
  • Restricting integral action to a certain band around the setpoint (target state)
  • Understand the source of steady-state error and integrate the knowledge into the feedforward term