AbstractA novel Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is proposed for stable and unstable first order processes with time delay. The controller is cascaded in series with a second order filter. Polynomial approach is employed to derive the controller and filter parameters. Simple tuning rules are derived by analysing the maximum sensitivity of the control loop. Formulae are provided for initial guess of tuning parameter. The range of tuning parameter around the initial guess and the corresponding range of maximum sensitivity is specified based on time delay to time constant ratio. Promising results are obtained with the proposed method is compared against recently proposed methods in the literature. The comparison is made in terms of various performance indices for servo and regulatory responses separately. The proposed method is implemented for an isothermal chemical reactor at an unstable equilibrium point.