PID TUNING FOR A MULTIVARIABLE PLANT USING TAGUCHI-BASED METHODS

15th Triennial World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control Barcelona, 21–26 July 2002

E. F. Ryckebusch^α, I. K. Craig^β,*

^α Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France

^β Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering,
University of Pretoria, South Africa

This paper presents the use of Taguchi methods for tuning PID parameters for a multivariable plant. The process used is a single-tank system with two inflows. The level in the tank and one of the inputs flows are the controlled variables. The variation of eight parameters was analysed and tests were performed with a L18 orthogonal array. After five stages of experimentation, a 65 percent improvement in signal-to-noise ratio was achieved.

Keywords: PID, MIMO system, Taguchi method, Experiment design, Parameter optimisation

E-mail: icraig@postino.up.ac.za

Session slot T-Tu-E12: Economic Evaluation of Process Automation in Mineral and Metal Processing/Area code 7b : Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing