Enhancing Control Performance of a Closed Loop System Using Particle Swarm Optimization Analysis

For decades the PID controller has received wide acceptance for many closed-loop control applications. Common deterministic approaches, for instance, Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) and Internal Model Control (IMC) are widely available in the literature. However, the tuning is fixed and dependent on the mathematical formulas that make the tuning becomes complicated when it involves multiple stages of process operations of a nonlinear process. Therefore, this paper presents the research work on PID controller tuning using a metaheuristic approach known as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) analysis. The research focuses on identifying models of the given nonlinear process at lower and higher temperature conditions. Evaluation of the performance indices and responses of the PSO and deterministic approaches prove the efficacy of the proposed method. Additionally, the paper explains the parameter settings of PSO for improved performance.