Ramon Vilanova – författare

Industrial PID Controller Tuning presents a different view of the servo/regulator compromise that has been studied for a long time in industrial control research. Optimal tuning generally involves comparison of cost functions (e.g., a quadratic function of the error or a time-weighted absolute value of the error) but without taking advantage of available multi-objective optimization methods. The book does make use of multi-objective optimization to account for several sources of disturbance, applying them to a more realistic problem: how to select the tuning of a controller when both servo and regulator responses are important.

The authors review the different deterministic multi-objective optimization methods. In order to ameliorate the consequences of the computational expense typically involved in their use—specifically the generation of multiple solutions among which the control engineer still has to choose—algorithms for two-degree-of-freedom PID control are implemented in MATLAB®. MATLAB code and a MATLAB-compatible program are provided for download and will help readers to adapt the ideas presented in the text for use in their own systems. Further practical guidance is offered by the inclusion of several examples of common industrial processes amenable to the use of the authors’ methods.

Advances in Industrial Control reports and encourages the transfer of technology in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended exposition of new work in all aspects of industrial control.

This book presentsa unified methodology for the design of PID controllers that encompasses the widerange of different dynamics to be found in industrial processes. This is extendedto provide a coherent way of dealing with the tuning of PID controllers. The particularmethod at the core of the book is the so-called model-reference robust tuning (MoReRT),developed by the authors. MoReRT constitutes a novel and powerful way of thinkingof a robust design and taking into account the usual design trade-offs encounteredin any control design problem.

The book starts bypresenting the different two-degree-of-freedomPID control algorithm variationsand their conversion relations as well as the indexes used for performance, robustnessand fragility evaluation:the bases of the proposed model. Secondly, the MoReRT designmethodology and normalized controlled process models and controllers used in thedesign are described in order to facilitate the formulation of the different designproblems and subsequent derivation of tuning rules. Inlater chapters the applicationof MoReRT to over-damped, inverse-response, integrating and unstable processes isdescribed. The book ends by presenting three possible extensions of the MoReRT methodology,thereby opening the door to new research developments. In this way, the book servesas a reference and source book for academic researchers who may also consider itas a stimulus for new ideas as well as for industrial practitioners and manufacturersof control systems who will find appropriate advanced solutions to many applicationproblems.

This book examines the operation of biological wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), with a focus on maintaining effluent water quality while keeping operational costs within constrained limits. It includes control operation and decision schemes and is based on the use of benchmarking scenarios that yield easily reproducible results that readers can implement for their own solutions. The final criterion is the effect of the applied control strategy on plant performance – specifically, improving effluent quality, reducing costs and avoiding violations of established effluent limits. The evaluation of the different control strategies is achieved with the help of two Benchmark Simulation Models (BSM1, BSM2).

Given the complexity of the biological and biochemical processes involved and the major fluctuations in the influent flow rate, controlling WWTPs poses a serious challenge. Further, the importance of control goal formulation and control structure design in relation to WWTP process control is widely recognized. Of particular interest are the regulations governing the compliance with effluent criteria. Authorities measure compliance with these criteria on the basis of long or short timeframes, and the legal constraints imposed on effluent pollutant concentrations are among the most essential aspects of control structures for WWTPs. This book explores all these facets in detail.