First and Higher Order Operator based Fractional

Order Differentiator and Integrator Models

P. Varshney STUDENT MEMBER IEEE & M. Gupta

G. S. Visweswaran

Advanced Electronics Lab, Department of ECE

Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology
New Delhi, India
pragya.varshney1@gmail.com

Department of Electrical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology
New Delhi, India
gsviswes@gmail.com
differentiators ( sr ;0 < r < 1 ) and fractional order integrators
( s r ;0 < r < 1 ) in continuous-time domain.

Abstract In this paper, new discretized models of fractional

order differentiator (FOD) ( sr ) and fractional order integrator
(FOI) ( s r ) based on first and higher order operators are
proposed. Specifically in this work, one-third ( s

13

The organization of this paper is as follows: Section II

gives a brief definition of fractional order system and
controllers. Section III presents the proposed discretization
scheme for one-third and one-fourth order differentiator and
integrator based on Al-Alaoui operator, Hsue operator,
Schneider operator and Al-Alaoui - SKG rule. MATLAB
results of the various operator based one-third and one-fourth
differentiators and integrators are presented in Section IV. The
simulations are also compared with the theoretical results of the
one-third and one-fourth order differentiators and integrators in
continuous-time domain in the same section. Section V
concludes the paper.

) and one-

fourth ( s 4 ) order differentiator and integrator models based

on first order Al-Alaoui [1] and Hsue operator [2], second order
Schneider operator [3] and third order Al-Alaoui - SchneiderKaneshige-Groutage (ALSKG) rule [4, 5] have been derived. The
stability of the proposed models has been investigated and the
unstable ones stabilized by the pole reflection method.
Performance results using the proposed discrete-time
formulations are found to converge to the analytical results of
fractional order differentiator and integrator, in the continuoustime domain. MATLAB simulation results show that the
responses of the fractional differentiators and integrators match
with the results of the theoretical results of the continuous-time
domain fractional differentiators and integrators.

II.

The fractional order system is represented by a fractional

differential equation given by (1).

Keywords- One-third and one-fourth order differentiator and

integrator, Al-Alaoui Operator, Schneider Operator, Al-Alaoui SKG rule, Hsue operator.

I.

a D n y(t) + ..... + a D 1 y(t) + a D 0 y(t) =

n t
1 t
0 t

b D m u(t) + ..... + b D 1 u(t) + b D 0 u(t)

m t
1 t
0 t

INTRODUCTION

Differentiators are useful in the processing of signals in

various fields, such as digital control [5, 6], digital image
processing [7], communication and bio-medical applications
[8, 9] etc. In [10], the designs of differentiators in time domain
and in frequency domain [11] have been discussed. The design
of fractional order finite impulse response (FIR) and infinite
impulse response (IIR) Simpson digital integrators using
binomial series expansion is proposed in [12]. Some numerical
integration schemes to represent fractional-order systems have
been suggested in [13]. Chen et al. [14] have proposed
discretized mathematical models of half differentiator using
first order operators viz. Al-Alaoui operator and Tustin
operator.

(1)

where k (k = 0,1,2, ,m), k (k = 0,1,2, ,n) are real numbers

are arbitrary
and ak (k = 0,1,2, ,n),bk (k = 0,1,2, , m)
constants.
by

The discretized model of a fractional order system is given

b ((z1 )) m + ...... + b ((z 1 )) 1 + b ((z1 )) 0

1
0
G(z) = m

a ((z1 )) n + ...... + a ((z 1 )) 1 + a ((z1 )) 0

n
1
0

(2)

where (z 1 ) denotes the discrete operator, expressed as a

function of the complex variable z or the shift operator z 1
[14].

In this paper, discretized mathematical models of one-third

and one-fourth order differentiators and integrators using AlAlaoui operator [1], Hsue operator [1], Schneider operator [3]
and Al-Alaoui - SKG rule [4, 5] have been presented. The
results obtained show that the frequency responses of the
proposed fractional order differentiator and integrator models
almost match with the frequency response of fractional order

978-1-4244-4547-9/09/$26.00 2009 IEEE

FRACTIONAL SYSTEMS AND CONTROLLERS [5]

The fractional order PID controller can be described by

the fractional order differential equation
u(t) = Ke(t) + TDe(t) + T De(t)
i t
d t

(3)

TENCON 2009

The discrete approximation

controller is expressed as
C(z) =

of

the

TABLE I.

fractional-order

U (z )
= K + T ( (z 1 )) + T ( (z 1 ))
i
d
E (z )

3RD ORDER AL-ALAOUI OPERATOR BASED ONE-THIRD AND

ONE-FOURTH DIFFERENTIATORS AND INTEGRATORS1

(4)

where is an integral order, is a derivation order, K is a

proportional constant, Ti is an integration constant and Td is a
derivation constant, E(z) is the input to the controller and
U(z) is the output of the controller. If we choose the
parameters and equal to 1 , we obtain the classical PID
controller.
PROPOSED DISCRETIZATIONS OF FRACTIONAL ORDER
DIFFERENTIATOR AND INTEGRATOR

III.

In this section, we discuss the discretizations of Al-Alaoui

operator, Hsue operator, Schneider operator and Al-AlaouiSKG rule for the design of one-third and one-fourth
differentiator and integrator models.
Discretization is the key step in the digital implementation
of the fractional order controller containing s r where
(r R ) ; 1 < r < 1 . The discretization of fractional order
differentiator can be expressed by a generating function
s = z 1 . The generating function is used for obtaining the

( )

1
1 using TSE and CFE techniques. All
and
3
4

coefficients and the forms of the approximation [14].

Al-Alaoui operator based one-third and one-fourth order

differentiator and integrator models are found to be stable.
Higher order stable models can be obtained by the same
method. The 3rd order models of differentiator and integrator
obtained using CFE and TSE are listed in Table I.

In this paper, the discretization technique involves

expanding the fractional powers of the s-to-z transformations
using either Taylor series expansion (TSE) or continued
fraction expansion (CFE) or both. In the first method, the TSE
of the numerator and denominator polynomials are performed
using the MATLAB command taylor. Then, depending on the
order of the fractional model required, the expansions are
truncated to obtain the fractional order models. In the second
method, CFE is used to expand the transfer functions using the
MATLAB command cfrac [14]. The coefficients of the
numerator and denominator polynomials are then collected to
obtain the one-third and one-fourth order models. Throughout
the paper, the sampling period T has been chosen as 0.001s ,
so
the
sampling
frequency
becomes
= 2 * 1000 = 2000rad / sec .

B. Discretizations of Hsue Operator for one-third and onefourth differentiator and integrator
The Hsue operator [2] of (6)
s

1
1 z

1
1 + z 7

T 1 +

( 0 .0 7 3

0 .2 6 ) z 1

(6)

1 z 1

C. Discretizations of Schneider Operator for one-third and

one-fourth differentiator and integrator
Schneider [3] proposed higher order mapping functions
which exhibit increased accuracy in digitizing linear, time
invariant, continuous time filters for practical applications. The
s-to-z transformations are based on Adams-Moulton Numerical
Integration formulae. The s-to-z mapping function for one-third
and one-fourth differentiator and integrator using Schneider
rule can be put in the form

A. Discretizations of Al-Alaoui Operator for one-third and

one-fourth differentiator and integrator
The Al-Alaoui operator [1] is given in (5)
8
7T

is expanded using TSE and CFE techniques. All the models

obtained are stable, as all the poles and zeros of the expansions
lie within the unit circle in the z-plane. The position of poles
and zeros of some of the one-third and one-fourth integrators
obtained are shown in Table II.

Specifically, in this work, the 3rd order, one-third and onefourth differentiator and integrator models using various s-to-z
transformations have been developed and compared with the
theoretical results in continuous-time domain. All the models
obtained are found to be inherently stable with all poles and
zeros lying within the unit circle in the z-domain.

s =

the

(5)

One-third and one-fourth order differentiator and integrator

models are obtained by expanding (5) for fractional powers of

1
In all the models presented in this paper, G stands for differentiator and
H stands for integrator.

r
12
(z2 z)
with T = 0.001s; r = 1 and 1
sr =
3
4
2
T

(5z + 8z 1)

(7)

G
(z) =
3alskg1 _ 4

Expanding (7) using TSE, the 3rd order one-third

differentiator model is derived as
G
(z) =
sch3df1 _ 3unst

13.3887 ( z - 0.6502 ) z2 + 0.3169z + 0.09493

(z + 1.111 )

(z2 0.5781z + 0.2915)

(0.0961z3 + 0.03203z2 + 0.02136z + 0.01661)

(z3 0.056z2 + 0.02651z 0.01199)
( 0.1726z3 + 0.04315z2 + 0.02697z + 0.02023)
H
(z) =
3alskg1 _ 4
(z3 0.042z2 + 0.01959z 0.008717 )
H
(z) =
3alskg1 _ 3

(8)

Equation (8) shows an unstable pole at z = 1.111 . The pole

reflection method of Steiglitz [15] is used to stabilize the
unstable transfer function. Hence, the stable 3rd order one-third
differentiator model is derived as in (9).
G
(z) =
sch3df1 _ 3st

(13.3887 1.111) (z - 0.6502 )

z2 + 0.3169z + 0.09493

(z + (1 1.111) ) (z2 0.5781z + 0.2915 )

IV.

(12.05z3 4.017z2 1.339z 0.7438)

(z3 + 0.322z2 0.2288z + 0.2624)
(6.999z3 1.75z2 0.6565z 0.3828)
G
(z) =
3schdf1 _ 4
(z3 + 0.4z2 0.29z + 0.284)
(0.0747z3 + 0.03984z2 0.02623z + 0.0242)
H
(z) =
3schint1 _ 3
(z3 0.3333z2 0.1111z - 0.06173)
(0.1429z3 + 0.03572z2 + 0.02233z + 0.01675)
H
(z) =
3schint1 _ 4
(z3 0.4z2 + 0.45z - 0.58)

(10)

(z z )
1.1272

T (z3 + 0.168z2 0.0607z + 0.0199)

(11)

(12)

(13)

(14)

and one-fourth differentiator and integrator models. The 3rd

order models are
G
(z) =
3alskg1 _ 3

(13.39z3 4.463z2 1.488z 0.8265)

(z3 + 0.056z2 0.02337z + 0.009192)

(18)

PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Al-Alaoui (CFE) and Hsue (CFE) operator based

discretizations approximate to a constant phase of 30
for the frequency range 100 500Hz .

Al-Alaoui (TSE) operator and Al-Alaoui-SKG rule

based discretizations approximate to a linear phase for
the frequency range 0 500Hz .

Fig 3 compares the 3rd order models of the one-fourth

differentiators based on Al-Alaoui operator, Al-Alaoui-SKG
rule, Hsue operator and Schneider operator responses with the
1
theoretical results of the s 4 differentiator in continuous-time
domain and Fig 4 shows the magnitude errors (in dB). The
magnitude error of almost all the models is approximately less
than 20dB for the frequency range 100 500Hz . The error
of Al-Alaoui operator (CFE) based 3rd order one-fourth
differentiator is less than 20dB in the frequency range
25 500Hz , and the errors of Al-SKG rule and Al-Alaoui
operator (TSE) based one-fourth differentiators are same. The
phase responses based on

The operator of (14), is expanded for fractional powers of

rd
th
th
( 1 ) and ( 1 ) , to obtain the 3 , 4 and 5 order one-third
3

(17)

Fig 1 compares the frequency responses of the Al-Alaoui

operator, Hsue Operator, Schneider Operator and Al-AlaouiSKG rule based 3rd order one-third differentiators and
compares them with the continuous-time domain one-third
differentiator. It is observed that the magnitude response of the
Al-Alaoui operator (obtained using CFE) based 3rd order onethird differentiator shows best magnitude fit response. Fig 2
shows the magnitude errors (in dB) of the various operator
based one-third differentiators as compared with the
1
continuous-time domain s 3 differentiator. It is observed that
the magnitude error for the Al-Alaoui operator (obtained using
CFE) based 3rd order one-third differentiator is 20dB in
the frequency range 25 500Hz and less than < 40dB in
the frequency range 200 500Hz . From Fig 1, the phase
responses of the one-third differentiators are as follows:

D. Discretizations of Al-Alaoui-SKG Rule for one-third and

one-fourth differentiator and integrator
Schneider et al. [4] have developed a family of higher order
numerical integration formulae and their corresponding s-to-z
mapping functions. These higher order mapping functions are
more accurate and stable than the first order mapping functions.
One of these s-to-z mapping functions is the third order
operator viz. SKG rule. Further Al-Alaoui [5], pointed out that
the SKG mapping function had an unstable pole located at
z = 2.3658 . So, the modified stable third order operator
proposed by Al-Alaoui, (the Al-Alaoui-SKG rule) is used in
our design. This rule is given in (14).
s=

(16)

In this paper, models of fractional order differentiator and

integrators based on first and higher order s-to-z
transformations using TSE and CFE are suggested. The
frequency responses of the proposed (1/3)rd and (1/4)th order
models are compared with the responses of the corresponding
ideal counter parts in continuous-time domain. MATLAB
simulation results have been presented to validate the
effectiveness of the proposed design.

(9)

The stable Schneider operator based 3rd order 1/3rd & 1/4th
order differentiator and integrator models are
G
(z) =
3schdf1 _ 3

(5.794z3 1.449z2 0.5432z 0.3169)

(z3 + 0.042z2 0.01782z + 0.007146)

(15)

The errors of Hsue operator (TSE), Al-Alaoui-SKG rule and

Al-Alaoui operator (TSE) based 3rd order one-third integrator
are less than 20dB in the frequency ranges 150 500Hz ,
150 300Hz and 150 300Hz respectively. From the phase
response of Fig 5 it is observed that phases of the various
operator discretizations of one-third integrator are as follows

Al-Alaoui-SKG rule and Hsue (CFE) operator

discretizations approximate the phase of one-fourth
differentiator for the frequency range 100 500Hz .

Al-Alaoui (CFE) operator based discretization

approximates to a linear phase for the frequency range
0 500Hz .

Al-Alaoui (CFE) and Hsue (CFE) operator based

discretizations approximate to a constant phase of
30 for the frequency range 100 500Hz .

Hsue (TSE) operator based discretization approximates

to a linear phase for the frequency range 0 500Hz .

Al-Alaoui (TSE) operator and Al-Alaoui-SKG rule

based discretizations also show a linear phase
variation.

Figs. 6 & 7 show the frequency responses and magnitude

errors of the different operator based 3rd order one-fourth
integrators. The magnitude errors of Al-Alaoui (CFE) operator,
Hsue (TSE) operator, Al-Alaoui-SKG rule and Al-Alaoui
(TSE) operator based one-fourth integrator are less than
20dB in the frequency ranges 25 500Hz , 150 500Hz ,
125 500Hz and 125 500Hz respectively. Fig 6 also
shows the phase response of the one-fourth integrator models
suggested in this paper. The phase results are same as that of
the one-third integrator discretizations except that the phase
approximates to a constant value of 22.5 for the frequency
range 100 500Hz .

Figure 1. Frequency responses of one-third differentiator obtained by discreti zation of Al-Alaoui, Hsue, Schneider operators and Al-Alaoui-SKG rule

Fig 5 shows the frequency responses of Al-Alaoui operator,

Al-Alaoui-SKG rule, Hsue operator and Schneider operator,
based 3rd order one-third integrators and Fig 6 shows the
magnitude errors of these one-third integrators. Here also, the
Al-Alaoui operator (CFE) based 3rd order one-third integrator
shows best results.

Figure 3. Frequency responses of one-fourth differentiator obtained by

discretization of Al-Alaoui, Hsue, Schneider operators & Al-Alaoui-SKG rule
Figure 2. Magnitude errors (in dB) of Al-Alaoui, Hsue, Schneider operator
& Al-Alaoui-SKG rule based one-third differentiators compared to the
continuous-time one- third differentiator

integrators show best results. However, the performance of AlAlaoui-SKG rule and Hsue operator based discretizations show
good results for different frequency ranges.

Figure 4. Magnitude errors (in dB) of Al-Alaoui, Hsue, Schneider operator

& Al-Alaoui-SKG rule based one-fourth differentiators compared to the
continuous-time one- fourth differentiator
Figure 6. Magnitude errors (in dB) of Al-Alaoui, Hsue, Schneider operator
& Al-Alaoui-SKG rule based one-third integrators compared to the
continuous-time one- third integrator

Figure 5. Frequency responses of one-third integrators obtained by

discretization of Al-Alaoui, Hsue, Schneider operators & Al-Alaoui-SKG rule

V.

CONCLUSIONS

Figure 7. Frequency responses of one-fourth integrators obtained by

discretization of Al-Alaoui, Hsue, Schneider operators & Al-Alaoui-SKG rule

In this paper, we have proposed z-domain stable models of

fractional order differentiators ( sr ) and integrators ( s r ) for
r = 1 3 and 1 4 using Al-Alaoui operator, Schneider
operator, Al-Alaoui-SKG rule and Hsue operator. The
sampling period for all the approximations in this paper is
chosen as 0.001s. It is observed that the discretizations of AlAlaoui operator for the fractional order differentiators and

However, approximate mathematical models of fractional

order differentiators and fractional order integrators can be
obtained for different values of T.
Schneider operator and Al-Alaoui-SKG rule based
fractional order differentiators were obtained using Taylor

series expansion. The continued fraction expansion of these

could not be accomplished.

[12] C. W. Hsue, L. C. Tsai and Y.H. Tsai, Time constant control of

microwave integrators using transmission lines, IEEE Trans.
Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 1043-1047, 2006.
[13] A. M. Schneider, J. T. Kaneshige and F. D. Groutage, Higher order sto- z mapping functions and their application in digitizing continuoustime filters, Proc. IEEE, vol. 79, pp. 1661-1674, 1991.
[14] A. M. Schneider, J. A. Anuskiewiez and I. S. Barghouti, Accuracy and
stability of discrete-time filters generated by higher order s-to-z mapping
functions, IEEE Trans. Automatic Control, vol. 39, pp. 435-441, 1994.
[15] M.A. Al-Alaoui, Novel Approach to Analog-to-Digital Transforms,
IEEE Trans. Circuits & Systems I: Fundamental Theory and
Applications, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 338-350, 2007.
[16] K. Steiglitz, Computer aided design of recursive digital filters, IEEE
Trans., 1970, AU-18, pp. 123-129.
[17] Y.Q. Chen and B.M. Vinagre, A new IIR-type digital fractional order
differentiator, Elsevier J. Signal Processing: Special Issue on Fractional
Signal Processing and Applications, vol. 83, no. 11, pp. 2359 2365,
2003.

Throughout the paper, analysis of 3rd order models of

various operator based one-third and one-fourth differentiators
and integrators has been presented. The authors have also
developed the 4th and 5th order models and checked the
effectiveness of the proposed approach.
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I. Petras, I. Podlubny, P. O'Leary, L. Dorcak and B.M. Vinagre,

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International J. Electronics, vol. 95, no. 6, June 2008, pp. 531547.
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TABLE II.

Figure 8. Magnitude errors (in dB) of Al-Alaoui, Hsue, Schneider operator

& Al-Alaoui-SKG rule based one-fourth integrators compared to the
continuous-time one-fourth integrator

POSITION OF POLES AND ZEROS OF HSUE OPERATOR BASED 1/3RD AND 1/4TH ORDER INTEGRATORS OBTAINED USING A) CFE B) TSE
A) CONTINUED FRACTION EXPANSION
ONE-THIRD DIFFERENTIATOR

ONE-THIRD INTEGRATOR

ONE-FOURTH DIFFERENTIATOR

ONE-FOURTH INTEGRATOR

ZERO

POLE

ZERO

POLE

ZERO

POLE

ZERO

0.9114

0.7929

0.7929

0.9108

0.8981

0.8092

0.8088

POLE
0.8983

0.4545

0.2647

0.2647

0.4548

0.4308

0.2884

0.2885

0.4307

-0.0737

-0.1922

-0.1922

-0.0736

-0.0900

-0.1789

-0.1789

-0.0900

B) TAYLOR SERIES EXPANSION

ONE-THIRD INTEGRATOR

ONE-FOURTH DIFFERENTIATOR

ONE-FOURTH INTEGRATOR

ZERO

POLE

ZERO

POLE

ZERO

POLE

-0.1826

0.6502

0.1058 +0.4927i

-0.0297 +0.1383i

-0.1620

0.5769

0.0445 + 0.0742i

-0.1584+0.2643i

0.1058 - 0.4927i

-0.0297 - 0.1383i

0.0459 +0.0733i

-0.1635+ 0.2609i

0.0445 - 0.0742i

-0.1584 - 0.2643i

-0.4616

0.1296

0.0459-0.0733i

-0.1635-0.2609i