Robust optimization-based multi-loop PID controller tuning: A new tool and its industrial application

Modern process plants are highly integrated and as a result, decentralized PID control loops are often strongly interactive. The iterative SISO tuning approach currently used in industry is not only time consuming, but does also not achieve optimal performance of the inherently multivariable control system. This paper describes a method and a software tool that allows control engineers/technicians to calculate optimal PID controller settings for multi-loop process systems. It requires the identification of a full dynamic model of the multivariable system, and uses constrained nonlinear optimization techniques to find the controller parameters. The solution is tailored to the specific control system and PID algorithm to be used. The methodology has been successfully applied in many industrial advanced control projects. The tuning results that have been achieved for interacting PID control loops in the stabilizing section of an industrial Gasoline Treatment Unit as well as a Diesel Desulfurization plant are presented.