GA-IMC based PID control design for an infrared dryer

Abstract

In this paper, for the purpose of temperature control of a batch dryer, a PID controller is designed using internal mode control (IMC) method, then its parameters are tuned using genetic algorithm. First, a data collection model is made in Simulink environment; then this model is connected to the real system through an I/O card via real time windows target (RTWT) toolbox of MATLAB. A set of input –output data are recorded and used to derive a linear model of the studied batch dryer. Based on this model, an IMC-based PID controller is designed. This controller is implemented and both the error integral and energy consumption are calculated for four different series of reference points. Using this information, the value a performance function is determined. This performance function includes both the error and energy consumption. Then, genetic algorithm is employed to tune the parameters of the controller to minimize the value of the performance function. In this paper, different performance functions are defined based on the importance of energy consumption for the designer; consequently, different controllers are designed. Using four series of reference points rather than only one series is the other main advantage of this work. This matter makes the results more reliable for a wide range of operation areas. The offered methodology is experimentally verified and can be used for other process systems.