Control of ball mill grinding circuit using model predictive control scheme

Ball mill grinding circuits are essentially multivariable systems with high interaction among process variables. Traditionally grinding circuits are controlled by detuned multi-loop PI controllers that minimize the effect of interaction among the control loops. Detuned controllers generally become sluggish and a close control of the circuit is not possible. Model Predictive Controllers (MPC) can handle such highly interacting multivariable systems efficiently due to its coordinated approach. Moreover, MPC schemes can handle input and output constraints more explicitly and operation of the circuits close to their optimum operating conditions is possible. Control studies on a laboratory ball mill grinding circuit are carried out by simulation with detuned multi-loop PI controllers, unconstrained and constrained model predictive controllers and their performances are compared.     

Optimal control of grinding mill circuit using model predictive static programming: A new nonlinear MPC paradigm

The recently developed reference-command tracking version of model predictive static programming (MPSP) is successfully applied to a single-stage closed grinding mill circuit. MPSP is an innovative optimal control technique that combines the philosophies of model predictive control (MPC) and approximate dynamic programming. The performance of the proposed MPSP control technique, which can be viewed as a ‘new paradigm’ under the nonlinear MPC philosophy, is compared to the performance of a standard nonlinear MPC technique applied to the same plant for the same conditions. Results show that the MPSP control technique is more than capable of tracking the desired set-point in the presence of model-plant mismatch, disturbances and measurement noise. The performance of MPSP and nonlinear MPC compare very well, with definite advantages offered by MPSP. The computational speed of MPSP is increased through a sequence of innovations such as the conversion of the dynamic optimization problem to a low-dimensional static optimization problem, the recursive computation of sensitivity matrices and using a closed form expression to update the control. To alleviate the burden on the optimization procedure in standard MPC, the control horizon is normally restricted. However, in the MPSP technique the control horizon is extended to the prediction horizon with a minor increase in the computational time. Furthermore, the MPSP technique generally takes only a couple of iterations to converge, even when input constraints are applied. Therefore, MPSP can be regarded as a potential candidate for online applications of the nonlinear MPC philosophy to real-world industrial process plants.     

Throughput and product quality control for a grinding mill circuit using non-linear MPC

A non-linear model-based control architecture for a single-stage grinding mill circuit closed with a hydrocyclone is proposed. The control architecture aims to achieve independent control of circuit throughput and product quality, and consists of a non-linear model predictive controller for grinding mill circuit control, and a dynamic inversion controller to control the fast sump dynamics. A particle filter is used to estimate the mill states, and an algebraic routine is used to estimate the sump states. The observers make use of real-time continuous measurements commonly available on industrial plants. Simulation results show that control objectives can be achieved by the controller despite the presence of measurement noise and disturbances.     

An EKF observer to estimate semi-autogenous grinding mill hold-ups

A non-linear observer model of a semi-autogenous grinding mill is developed. The observer model distinguishes between the volumetric hold-up of water, solids, and the grinding media in the mill. Solids refer to all ore small enough to discharge through the end-discharge grate, and grinding media refers to the rocks and steel balls. The rocks are all ore too large to discharge from the mill. The observer model uses the accumulation rate of solids and the mill's discharge rate as parameters. It is shown that with mill discharge flow-rate, discharge density, and volumetric hold-up measurements, the model states and parameters are linearly observable. Although instrumentation at the mill discharge is not yet included in industrial circuits because of space restrictions, this study motivates the benefits to be gained from including such instrumentation. An extended Kalman filter is applied in simulation to estimate the model states and parameters from data generated by a semi-autogenous mill simulation model from literature. Results indicate that if sufficiently accurate measurements are available, especially at the discharge of the mill, it is possible to reliably estimate grinding media, solids and water hold-ups within the mill. Such an observer can be used as part of an advanced process control strategy.     

A graphical tuning method of fractional order proportional integral derivative controllers for interval fractional order plant

In this paper, a novel graphical tuning method of fractional order proportional integral derivative (FOPID) controllers is proposed for a given interval fractional order plant family. Firstly, an approach is presented to solve the problem of robustly stabilizing the interval fractional order plant using FOPID controller. Moreover, some alternative methods are developed to reduce the computational burden of the presented approach. The results obtained here are general and strict proofs are given on these results. Secondly, a new approach is presented to calculate the complete sets of FOPID controller parameters which guarantee the specified H_∞-norm constraint for the interval fractional order plant. The developed approach is convenient and flexible. Finally, a unified design framework is proposed. The aim of the unified design is to compute the biggest region which can simultaneously provide internal stability, maintain the classical gain and phase margin and guarantee the modern H_∞-norm constraint for the interval fractional order plant. Examples are followed to illustrate the design procedure.     

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.     

Design of internal model control based fractional order PID controller

This article presents a design of the internal model control(IMC)based single degree of freedom(SDF) fractional order(FO)PID controller with a desired bandwidth specification for a class of fractional order system(FOS). The drawbacks of the SDF FO-IMC are eliminated with the help of the two-degree of freedom(TDF)FO PID controller. The robust stability and robust performance of the designed controller are analyzed using an example.     

Tuning and auto-tuning of fractional order controllers for industry applications

This paper deals with the design of fractional order PI^λD^μ controllers, in which the orders of the integral and derivative parts, λ and μ, respectively, are fractional. The purpose is to take advantage of the introduction of these two parameters and fulfill additional specifications of design, ensuring a robust performance of the controlled system with respect to gain variations and noise. A method for tuning the PI^λD^μ controller is proposed in this paper to fulfill five different design specifications. Experimental results show that the requirements are totally met for the platform to be controlled. Besides, this paper proposes an auto-tuning method for this kind of controller. Specifications of gain crossover frequency and phase margin are fulfilled, together with the iso-damping property of the time response of the system. Experimental results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of this method.     

optimization‐based fractional‐order PID controllers design

In this paper we propose a fractional‐order proportional‐integral‐derivative controller design based on the solution of an model matching problem for fractional first‐order‐plus‐dead‐time processes. Starting from the analytical solution of the problem, we show that a fractional proportional‐integral‐derivative suboptimal controller can be obtained. Guidelines for the tuning of the controller parameters are given in order to address the robust stability issue and to obtain the required performance. The main differences with respect to the integer‐order case are highlighted. Simulation results show that the design methodology is effective and allows the user to consider process with different dynamics in a unified framework. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disturbance observer based multi-variable control of ball mill grinding circuits

Ball mill grinding circuits are essentially multi-variable systems characterized with couplings, time-varying parameters and time delays. The control schemes in previous literatures, including detuned multi-loop PID control, model predictive control (MPC), robust control, adaptive control, and so on, demonstrate limited abilities in control ball mill grinding process in the presence of strong disturbances. The reason is that they do not handle the disturbances directly by controller design. To this end, a disturbance observer based multi-variable control (DOMC) scheme is developed to control a two-input-two-output ball mill grinding circuit. The systems considered here are with lumped disturbances which include external disturbances, such as the variations of ore hardness and feed particle size, and internal disturbances, such as model mismatches and coupling effects. The proposed control scheme consists of two compound controllers, one for the loop of product particle size and the other for the loop of circulating load. Each controller includes a PI feedback part and a feed-forward compensation part for the disturbances by using a disturbance observer (DOB). A rigorous analysis is also given to show the reason why the DOB can effectively suppress the disturbances. Performance of the proposed scheme is compared with those of the MPC and multi-loop PI schemes in the cases of model mismatches and strong external disturbances, respectively. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method has a better disturbance rejection property than those of the MPC and PI methods in controlling ball mill grinding circuits.     

PID auto-tuning using new model reduction method and explicit PID tuning rule for a fractional order plus time delay model

In this paper, a new model reduction method and an explicit PID tuning rule for the purpose of PID auto-tuning on the basis of a fractional order plus time delay model are proposed. The model reduction method directly fits the fractional order plus time delay model to frequency response data by solving a simple single-variable optimization problem. In addition, the optimal tuning parameters of the PID controller are obtained by solving the Integral of the Time weighted Absolute Error (ITAE) minimization problem and then, the proposed PID tuning rule in the form of an explicit formula is developed by fitting the parameters of the formula to the obtained optimal tuning parameters. The proposed tuning method provides almost the same performance as the optimal tuning parameters. Simulation study confirms that the auto-tuning strategy based on the proposed model reduction method and the PID tuning rule can successfully incorporate various types of process dynamics.     

Integration of PSO and GA for optimum design of fuzzy PID controllers in a pendubot system

In this paper, a novel auto-tuning method is proposed to design fuzzy PID controllers for asymptotical stabilization of a pendubot system. In the proposed method, a fuzzy PID controller is expressed in terms of fuzzy rules, in which the input variables are the error signals and their derivatives, while the output variables are the PID gains. In this manner, the PID gains are adaptive and the fuzzy PID controller has more flexibility and capability than the conventional ones with fixed gains. To tune the fuzzy PID controller simultaneously, an evolutionary learning algorithm integrating particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA) methods is proposed. The simulation results illustrate that the proposed method is indeed more efficient in improving the asymptotical stability of the pendubot system. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

Fractional order [proportional derivative] controller for a class of fractional order systems

Recently, fractional order systems (FOS) have attracted more and more attention in various fields. But the control design techniques available for the FOS suffer from the lack of direct systematic approaches. In this paper, we focus on a given type of simple model of FOS. A fractional order [proportional derivative] (FO-[PD]) controller is proposed for this class of FOS, and a practical and systematic tuning procedure has been developed for the proposed FO-[PD] controller synthesis. The fairness issue in comparing with other controllers such as the traditional integer order PID (IO-PID) controller and the fractional order proportional derivative (FO-PD) controller has been addressed under the same number of design parameters and the same specifications. Fair comparisons of the three controllers (i.e., IO-PID, FO-PD and FO-[PD]) via the simulation tests illustrate that, the IO-PID controller designed may not always be stabilizing to achieve flat-phase specification while both FO-PD and FO-[PD] controllers designed are always stabilizing. Furthermore, the proposed FO-[PD] controller outperforms FO-PD controller for the class of fractional order systems.     

Battery power loss compensated fractional order sliding mode control of a quadrotor UAV

This work considers the fractional order control of a lightweight quadrotor under loss in the battery voltage. Since the outdoor brushless motors are driven via a pulse width modulation (pwm) scheme, handshaking between the dynamic model and controller is established at the pwm level and this constitutes a major contribution of the paper. The attitude control is achieved via fractional order sliding mode control (FSMC) scheme. Necessary stability considerations are presented and it is seen that FSMC is a good alternative for the control of unmanned aerial vehicles. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

On fractional order composite model reference adaptive control

This paper presents a novel composite model reference adaptive control approach for a class of fractional order linear systems with unknown constant parameters. The method is extended from the model reference adaptive control. The parameter estimation error of our method depends on both the tracking error and the prediction error, whereas the existing method only depends on the tracking error, which makes our method has better transient performance in the sense of generating smooth system output. By the aid of the continuous frequency distributed model, stability of the proposed approach is established in the Lyapunov sense. Furthermore, the convergence property of the model parameters estimation is presented, on the premise that the closed-loop control system is stable. Finally, numerical simulation examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.     

Optimum design of fractional order PID controller for AVR system using chaotic ant swarm

Fractional-order PID (FOPID) controller is a generalization of standard PID controller using fractional calculus. Compared to PID controller, the tuning of FOPID is more complex and remains a challenge problem. This paper focuses on the design of FOPID controller using chaotic ant swarm (CAS) optimization method. The tuning of FOPID controller is formulated as a nonlinear optimization problem, in which the objective function is composed of overshoot, steady-state error, raising time and settling time. CAS algorithm, a newly developed evolutionary algorithm inspired by the chaotic behavior of individual ant and the self-organization of ant swarm, is used as the optimizer to search the best parameters of FOPID controller. The designed CAS-FOPID controller is applied to an automatic regulator voltage (AVR) system. Numerous numerical simulations and comparisons with other FOPID/PID controllers show that the CAS-FOPID controller can not only ensure good control performance with respect to reference input but also improve the system robustness with respect to model uncertainties.     

Performance analysis of fractional order fuzzy PID controllers applied to a robotic manipulator

A two-link robotic manipulator is a Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO), highly nonlinear and coupled system. Therefore, designing an efficient controller for this system is a challenging task for the control engineers. In this paper, the Fractional Order Fuzzy Proportional-Integral-Derivative (FOFPID) controller for a two-link planar rigid robotic manipulator for trajectory tracking problem is investigated. Robustness testing of FOFPID controller for model uncertainties, disturbance rejection and noise suppression is also investigated. To study the effectiveness of FOFPID controller, its performance is compared with other three controllers namely Fuzzy PID (FPID), Fractional Order PID (FOPID) and conventional PID. For tuning of parameters of all the controllers, Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA) optimization technique was used. Two performance indices namely Integral of Absolute Error (IAE) and Integral of Absolute Change in Controller Output (IACCO) having equal weightage for both the links are considered for minimization. Numerical simulation results clearly indicate the superiority of FOFPID controller over the other controllers for trajectory tracking, model uncertainties, disturbance rejection and noise suppression.     

A memetic algorithm applied to trajectory control by tuning of Fractional Order Proportional-Integral-Derivative controllers

This paper introduces a novel memetic algorithm namely Fractional Particle Swarm Optimization-based Memetic Algorithm (FPSOMA) to solve optimization problem using fractional calculus concept. The FC illustrates a potential for interpreting progression of the algorithm by controlling its convergence. The FPSOMA accomplishes global search over the whole search space through PSO whereas local search is performed by PSO with fractional order velocity to alter the memory of best location of the particles. To assess the performance of the proposed algorithm, firstly an empirical comparison study is presented for solving different test functions adopted from literature. Comparisons demonstrate the preference of FPSOMA than other related algorithms. Subsequently, experiments are conducted to achieve optimal gains of Fractional Order Proportional-Integral-Derivative (FO PID) controller in solving tracking problem. Results verify the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.     

Sufficient conditions for the synthesis of H∞ fixed‐order controllers

This brief note deals with the synthesis of H_∞ fixed‐order controllers for linear systems. It is well known that this problem can be formulated as a bilinear matrix inequality optimization problem which is non convex and NP hard to solve. In this paper sufficient conditions are provided which allow to convert the controller design into a linear matrix inequality feasibility problem. A numerical example on a practical control problem shows the application of the proposed technique. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design of fractional order modeling based extended non-minimal state space MPC for temperature in an industrial electric heating furnace

In this paper, an improved approach of extended non-minimal state space (ENMSS) fractional order model predictive control (FMPC) is presented and tested on the temperature model of an industrial heating furnace. In the fractional order model predictive control algorithm, fractional order single-input single-output (SISO) system is discretized via fractional order Grünwald-Letnikov (GL) definition. The ENMSS fractional order model that contains the state variable and the fractional order output tracking error is formulated by choosing appropriate state variables. Meanwhile, the fractional order integral is introduced into the cost function and the GL definition is used to obtain the discrete form of the continuous cost function. Then the control signals are derived by minimizing the fractional order cost function. Lastly, the temperature process control of a heating furnace is illustrated to reflect the performance of the proposed FMPC method. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed FMPC method.