Simple control method for integrating processes with long deadtime

Control of integrating processes with long deadtime is a challenging problem. Using original Smith predictor control structure will result in an offset problem during load disturbance. Using the internal model control (IMC) principle to design the control structure will result in large overshoot during servo response. In this work, a simple modified Smith predictor controller design is proposed for this important type of system. The overall control structure has only two physically meaningful tuning parameters. One is used to set the speed of the closed-loop servo response and the other tuning parameter is used to set the speed of the closed-loop load response. Two examples are used to demonstrate the improved closed-loop performance of the proposed controller design.     

基于改进Smith预估控制结构的二自由度PID控制

针对工业过程中的二阶不稳定时滞过程, 基于改进史密斯预估控制结构提出了一种简单的两自由度控制方案.设定值跟踪控制器和扰动抑制控制器采用同一设计程序, 并基于内模控制原理提出了控制器解析设计方案.设定值跟踪控制器和抗扰动控制器可分别通过单性能参数独立调节和优化, 每个控制器都具有PID形式, 给出了控制器调整参数的选择范围和扰动抑制闭环保证鲁棒稳定性的条件.仿真实例验证了提出方法对于近期其他方法的优越性.     

一类工业过程预测控制的闭环分析

该文定量分析了一类典型工业过程预测控制系统的闭环性能,文中首先基于广义动态矩 阵控制系统的内模控制结构和控制器的最小化形式,导出了一阶惯性加时滞的典型对象预测 控制的闭环传递函数,在此基础上,给出了预测控制中主要设计参数与闭环动态响应和扰动抑 制时间的解析关系以及关于闭环系统鲁棒性的三个定理,提出了对增益或时滞失配允许范围 的搜索算法,从而为分析和设计预测控制系统提供了理论依据.     

Optimal dead-time compensator design for stable and integrating processes with time delay

Recently, a modified Smith predictor with a prefilter has been proposed for first-order stable and integrating processes with time delay. The paper is a further investigation on the empirical method. In this paper, an optimal design procedure is developed for the scheme. With respect to the proposed controller and corresponding processes with time delay, the closed-loop time domain responses are estimated quantitatively. The robustness of the closed-loop system is analyzed. Finally, a simple tuning rule is proposed, which allows to tune the controller for desired time domain properties such as overshoot and rise time, or frequency domain criteria such as stability margin and bandwidth.     

时滞过程改进型Smith预估器的整定

证明Majhi和Atherton(1999)文所提出的改进型Smith预估器等价于一改进的内模控制结构 (IMC), 并对该结构提出一种三阶段设计方法. 为获得扰动抑制和稳定鲁棒性的均衡, 采用了鲁棒控制方法来整定反馈环控制器. 针对某些典型的积分和不稳定时滞过程的设计表明所提方法能获得较好的扰动抑制和稳定鲁棒性的均衡.     

A direct synthesis tuning method of unstable first-order-plus-time-delay processes

A direct synthesis tuning method is proposed for the PI controller settings of unstable first-order-plus-time-delay processes. Unlike hitherto-known PI setting rules which often result in overshoots in time response or require the modification of the feedback control structure, this method ensures the overdamped response as desired while retaining the conventional PI control structure. This enhanced performance is possible by introducing a first-order set-point filter and applying simple rules for setting the values of the controller parameters without having any tuning parameters. The comparison with both conventional PI controllers and two-stage IMC method reveals that the proposed method produces not only smooth overdamped closed-loop response for set-point changes, but also fast regulatory control response for load changes. These responses are also shown to be quite robust against the uncertainties of the parameters as well as against the noise in the signal. The stability conditions for the processes having a large time delay or different ratios of time delay/time constant have been investigated as well. ©     

Robust tuning of a generalized predictor-based controller for integrating and unstable systems with long time-delay

In this work, a general structure to control long time-delay plants is proposed and an easy methodology to tune the control parameters is outlined. All the sensitivity transfer functions are delay free. The proposed scheme is equivalent to the Smith predictor but able to cope with any kind of systems, including non-minimum phase, unstable and integrating plants. The controllers are designed based on the delay free model. Contrary to other approaches, other than for the digital implementation, no delay approximation is used. A tuning parameter is provided in order to reach an intuitive tradeoff between performance and robust stability. A comparative analysis with respect to recently successful proposals shows a substantial improvement in the performance/robustness tradeoff as well as in the tuning process.     

Maximum sensitivity based fractional IMC–PID controller design for non-integer order system with time delay

A simple approach with a small number of tuning parameters is a key goal in fractional order controller design. Recently there have been a number of limited attempts to bring about improvements in these areas. In this paper, a new design method for a fractional order PID controller based on internal model control (IMC) is proposed to handle non-integer order systems with time delay. In order to reduce the number of tuning parameters and mitigate the impact of time delay, the fractional order internal model control scheme is used. Considering the robustness of the control system with respect to process variations and model uncertainty, maximum sensitivity is applied to the tuning of the parameters. The resulting controller has the structure of a fractional order PID which is cascaded with a filter. This is named a fractional IMC–PID controller. Numerical results are given to show the efficiency of the proposed controller.     

An improved parallel cascade control structure for processes with time delay

Parallel cascade control strategies, to improve the dynamic performance of a control system, have been proposed earlier mainly for control of stable processes. In this paper, further results are presented for a new parallel cascade control structure and controller design for controlling stable, unstable or integrating processes with time delay. The design of the disturbance rejection controllers and the setpoint filter are based on loop shaping and ISE performance measures, respectively. A modified Smith predictor scheme is used in the primary loop to enhance the closed-loop performance of the system. The stabilization, robustness and performances of time delay processes are analyzed. The disturbance rejection capability of the proposed scheme is superior as compared to some existing methods. Examples are given to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed method and its superiority over some parallel cascade control schemes.     

Fuzzy predictive PI control for processes with large time delays

This paper presents the design, tuning and performance analysis of a new predictive fuzzy controller structure for higher order plants with large time delays. The designed controller consists of a fuzzy proportional-integral (PI) part and a fuzzy predictor. The fuzzy predictive PI controller combines the advantages of fuzzy control while maintaining the simplicity and robustness of a conventional PI controller. The dynamics of the prediction term are adaptive to the system's time delay. The prediction term has two parts: a fuzzy predictor that uses the system time delay as an input for calculating the prediction horizon and an exponential term that uses the prediction horizon as its positive power. The prediction term also introduces phase lead into the system which compensates for the phase lag due to the time delay in the plant, thereby stabilizing the closed-loop configuration. The performance of the proposed controller is compared with the responses of the conventional predictive PI controller, showing many advantages of the new design over its conventional counterpart.     

Simultaneous automatic tuning of cascade control systems from closed-loop step response data

This study presents a novel automatic tuning method for cascade control systems in which both primary and secondary controllers are tuned simultaneously using a single closed-loop step test. The proposed technique identifies the required process information with the help of B-spline series representation for the step responses. The two proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controllers are then tuned using an internal model control (IMC) approach. Considering the rationale of cascade control, the secondary controller is designed for faster disturbance attenuation. Without requiring an additional experiment, the primary controller is designed based on an identified process model that accurately accounts for inner loop dynamics. Finally, this study includes robustness considerations in the controller tuning process, and develops explicit guidelines for the selection of the IMC tuning parameters, completing the automatic tuning procedure for cascade control systems. The proposed method is robust to measurement noise because of the filtering property of the B-splines, and can provide superior control performance for both set-point tracking and disturbance rejection. Simulation examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed automatic tuning method.     

A variable time delay compensator for multivariable linear processes

A variable time delay compensator based on the Smith predictor is proposed. Finite difference and cinematic techniques are employed for a numerical approximation of the variable delay. The resulting multivariable controller is analyzed for robustness using the structured singular value. The technique is demonstrated through two simulated systems: a single-input, single-output numerical example, and a cross-direction paper machine control problem.     

Fractional IMC-PID-filter controllers design for non integer order systems

Fractional order controller design with a small number of tuning parameters is very attractive. Few attempts have been done recently for some limited cases of models. In this paper, a new approach is developed to design simple fractional-order controllers to handle fractional order processes. The fractional property is not especially imposed by the controller structure but by the closed-loop reference model. The resulting controller is fractional but it has a very interesting structure for its implementation. Indeed, the controller can be decomposed into two transfer functions: a PI^υD^μ-controller and a simple fractional filter. The new structure is named PI^υD^μ-FOF-controller. The design method is based on the internal model control (IMC) paradigm.     

Wiener sliding-mode control for artificial pancreas: a new nonlinear approach to glucose regulation

Type 1 diabetic patients need insulin therapy to keep their blood glucose close to normal. In this paper an attempt is made to show how nonlinear control-oriented model may be used to improve the performance of closed-loop control of blood glucose in diabetic patients. The nonlinear Wiener model is used as a novel modeling approach to be applied to the glucose control problem. The identified Wiener model is used in the design of a robust nonlinear sliding mode control strategy. Two configurations of the nonlinear controller are tested and compared to a controller designed with a linear model. The controllers are designed in a Smith predictor structure to reduce the effect of system time delay. To improve the meal compensation features, the controllers are provided with a simple feedforward controller to inject an insulin bolus at meal time. Different simulation scenarios have been used to evaluate the proposed controllers. The obtained results show that the new approach outperforms the linear control scheme, and regulates the glucose level within safe limits in the presence of measurement and modeling errors, meal uncertainty and patient variations.     

Smith predictor with inverted decoupling for square multivariable time delay systems

This paper presents a new methodology to design multivariable Smith predictor for n×n processes with multiple time delays based on the centralised inverted decoupling structure. The controller elements are calculated in order to achieve good reference tracking and decoupling response. Independent of the system size, very simple general expressions for the controller elements are obtained. The realisability conditions are provided and the particular case of processes with all of its elements as first-order plus time delay systems is discussed in more detail. A diagonal filter is added to the proposed control structure in order to improve the disturbance rejection without modifying the nominal set-point response and to obtain a stable output prediction in unstable plants. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated through different simulation examples in comparison with other works.     

A practical tuning methodology for event-based PI control

This paper is focused on the tuning of an event-based PI controller for first-order plus time delay systems (FOPTD). In this work, a novel design and combination of a controller and event generator with an easy-to-use tuning methodology is presented. The event generator combines the Smith predictor structure with the symmetric send-on-delta (SSOD) sampling scheme to compensate the delay and trigger the events. The controller has an adaptive structure with the purpose of improving the set-point tracking and guaranteeing stability under conditions of uncertainty. The approach is focused on FOPTD systems but can be easily extended to higher order systems. Stability and robustness analyses are conducted, and the experimental results verify the effectiveness of the approach.     

多变量时滞非方系统的分数阶Smith预估控制

针对多变量时滞非方系统,提出一种基于反向解耦的分数阶Smith预估控制方法.首先,将反向解耦方法推广应用于$m\times n$非方系统中,给出非方解耦矩阵的设计方法,同时为了保证解耦矩阵的稳定正则,给出其实现的必要条件以及条件不满足时的补偿方法;然后,针对解耦后的各个单回路系统设计分数阶Smith预估控制器,根据内模控制与Smith预估控制结构上的等价关系简化控制器的设计,克服时滞环节对系统性能的影响,并且基于最大灵敏度推导出一种控制器参数解析整定方法;最后,通过典型的Shell标准控制问题对所提出方法进行验证.仿真结果表明,反向解耦方法设计简单易于实现,能达到系统完全解耦,控制器参数较少,整定方便,并且具有良好的跟踪能力、抗干扰性和鲁棒性.     

Robust Stability Analysis of Smith Predictor Based Interval Fractional-Order Control Systems: A Case Study in Level Control Process

The robust stability study of the classic Smith predictor-based control system for uncertain fractional-order plants with interval time delays and interval coefficients is the emphasis of this work. Interval uncertainties are a type of parametric uncertainties that cannot be avoided when modeling real-world plants. Also, in the considered Smith predictor control structure it is supposed that the controller is a fractional-order proportional integral derivative (FOPID) controller. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no method has been developed until now to analyze the robust stability of a Smith predictor based fractional-order control system in the presence of the simultaneous uncertainties in gain, time-constants, and time delay. The three primary contributions of this study are as follows: i) a set of necessary and sufficient conditions is constructed using a graphical method to examine the robust stability of a Smith predictor-based fractional-order control system—the proposed method explicitly determines whether or not the FOPID controller can robustly stabilize the Smith predictor-based fractional-order control system; ii) an auxiliary function as a robust stability testing function is presented to reduce the computational complexity of the robust stability analysis; and iii) two auxiliary functions are proposed to achieve the control requirements on the disturbance rejection and the noise reduction. Finally, four numerical examples and an experimental verification are presented in this study to demonstrate the efficacy and significance of the suggested technique.      

积分加纯滞后系统的双预测PI控制及其应用

Smith预估控制器控制积分加大纯滞后过程时,鲁棒稳定性差,输出存在静态余差,无实际应用价值.提出了一类基于该过程的双预测PI控制器:具有内环和外环两种预测PI控制器.内环将系统稳定,外环消除输入干扰的影响和改善控制系统的动态性能.这种控制器结构简单,可调参数少,参数的调节方便、直观.仿真和实际应用表明:在干扰和模型失配的情况下,此类控制器仍然具有良好的控制性能和鲁棒稳定性能,是一种值得在实际工程中推广应用的新型控制器.