Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.

1997, 36, 5329-5338 5329

On-Line Process Identification and Autotuning for Integrating

Processes
Hee Jin Kwak, Su Whan Sung, and In-Beum Lee*
Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Environmental Engineering, Pohang University of Science
and Technology, San 31 Hyoja-Dong, Pohang 790-784, Korea

In this paper, first we analyze why the conventional PID controller is not suitable to control
integrating processes mathematically and intuitively. To overcome its structural limitation,
we add an internal feedback loop, which can convert the integrating process to an open-loop
stable process. Second, we propose a new and simple on-line process identification and
autotuning method for the integrating process. Here we use only the process input and output
to obtain a process transfer function directly, while other previous closed-loop identification
methods require the information of the closed-loop control structure. This identification method
can be applied not only to integrating processes but also to all those encountered in chemical
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engineering processes which are open-loop stable or unstable. From simulation studies, we can
recognize that, in spite of its simplicity, the proposed on-line process identification and autotuning
method shows not only good model accuracy but also superior control performances for both
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servo and regulatory problems. It also gives strong robustness to measurement noises and
disturbances.

1. Introduction tuning methods using the proportional (P) controller

Proportional, integral, and derivative (PID) control-
lers are still used widely in industry because of their
simplicity, robustness, and successful practical applica-
tions. They have three tuning parameters. To guar-
antee good control performances and stable closed-loop
responses, they should be tuned appropriately according
to the dynamics of the process.
There are many identification methods for open-loop
stable processes to obtain the integrator plus time delay
model and the first or second order plus time delay
model (Chen (1989), Cohen and Coon (1953), Friman
and Waller (1994), Huang and Chou (1994), Huang et
al. (1982), Huang and Huang (1993), Jutan and Rod-
riquez (1984), Lee and Sung (1993), Lee (1989), Lee et
al. (1990)). Also there are many tuning rules developed
for these models such as TL (Tyreus and Luyben), ZN
(Ziegler-Nichols), IMC (Internal Model Control), ITAE
(Integral of the Time-weighted Absolute value of the
Error), Cohen-Coon tuning rule, and so on and tuning
rules using a desired trajectory (Cohen and Coon (1953),
Lee et al. (1990), Lopez et al. (1967), Morari and Zafiriou
(1989), Sung et al. (1995a), Sung et al. (1996), Tyreus
and Luyben (1992), Ziegler and Nichols (1942)).
In recent years, many PID controller autotuning
methods have been proposed to improve the control
performance and simplify the tuning procedure of PID
controllers. Since A° ström and Hägglund (1984) pro-
posed the original relay feedback autotuning method,
many modified relay feedback methods have been
proposed and applied to many industrial processes
(A° ström et al. (1992, 1993), Chang et al. (1992), Dumont
et al. (1989), Friman and Waller (1994), Hang et al.
(1993), Hägglund and A° ström (1991), Hwang (1995),
Kim (1995), Lee et al. (1993), Lee and Sung (1993), Li
et al. (1991), Lin and Yu (1993), Loh et al. (1993), Loh
and Vasnani (1994), Luyben (1987), Schei (1992), Shen
and Yu (1994), Sung et al. (1995b)) and several auto-
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tele-
phone: 82-562-279-2274. Fax: 82-562-279-2699. E-mail: iblee@
postech.ac.kr.
S0888-5885(96)00560-X CCC: $14.00
have been proposed (Chen (1989), Hwang (1995), Jutan
and Rodriquez (1984), Lee (1989), Lee et al. (1990), Sung
et al. (1994), Yuwana and Seborg (1982)). These auto-
tuning methods have contributed much to improve
control performances and expand applications of PID
controllers.
All the above-mentioned methods have been devel-
oped for open-loop stable processes. Actually, a number
of processes are not open-loop stable processes but
integrating processes or others. Examples of chemical
engineering processes, which behave like integrating
processes and are encountered commonly, are tanks
with liquids, vessels with gases, inventory systems for
raw materials or products, and so on. Nevertheless,
simple on-line identification methods which derive their
transfer functions and corresponding on-line tuning
rules are rare. Even though the relay feedback iden-
tification method can be used to identify the ultimate
data of the integrating process and then a modified
Ziegler-Nichols tuning method can be applied to tune
the PID controller for it (A° ström and Hägglund (1984),
A° ström et al. (1992), Sung et al. (1995b)), the control
performance may be poor because this method considers
only one point in the Nyquist plot of the process. An
autotune variation (ATV) method can also be used to
derive the transfer function of the integrating process
(Luyben (1987), Li et al. (1991)). However, it needs
several relay feedback tests such that the identification
work is tedious and requires a long identification time.
An identification method using a P controller was
proposed (Sung and Lee (1996)) to identify an integrat-
ing process, but it has several drawbacks and limita-
tions, which will be explained in more detail in section
3.
Marlin (1995) proposed a design method for PI level
controllers. Theoretically, this method can control only
a delay-free system even though the time delay is very
common in industrial control systems. A desired trajec-
tory should be determined appropriately by the operator
in the tuning step of the controller. It is very confusing
and not an easy job for the operator unfamiliar with
process control theories. All control strategies with only
© 1997 American Chemical Society
5330 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 36, No. 12, 1997

the conventional PID controller, including Marlin’s
method (1995), have a structural limitation in control-
ling the integrating process (this will be discussed in
section 2). That is, all previous control methods with
only the PID controller show poor control performances
for the integrating process inevitably. Therefore, a new
control strategy should be developed to control it ef-
ficiently.
In this paper, we analyze the structural limitation of
the PID controller in controlling the integrating process
in section 2. On this basis, we develop a control strategy
are the desired output trajectory and closed-loop time
constant, respectively, kc, τi, and τd are the proportional
gain, integral time, and derivative time of the PID
controller, respectively, and ai and bi are arbitrary
constants. Note that a long time delay can be ap-
proximated by a rational polynomial accurately as much
as desired so that (2) can represent a large time delay
process effectively. Thus, (2) can be considered as a
general form of all actual linear processes.
If a perfect tracking is assumed, the left-hand and
right-hand side of (4) can be rewritten like (5) and (6),

( )
using an internal feedback loop to overcome this limita-
tion. In sections 3 and 4 we propose an on-line process anys(-1)n+1
identification method to obtain a high-order rational t
exp -
polynomial model and corresponding PID tuning rule
+
n τdesired

( )
τdesired
with model reduction to tune the PID controller auto-
matically for the integrating process. an-1ys(-1)n t
The proposed on-line process identification method exp - + ... +
and control strategy are very simple and guarantee on- τdesiredn-1 τdesired

( ) ( )
line operation and show a good model accuracy and
superior control performances simultaneously for both a1ys(-1)2 t t
the set-point tracking and disturbance rejection problem exp - - ys exp - +
τdesired τdesired τdesired

( )( )
compared with previous control methods.
The cores of the paper are the identification method n ai(-1)i+1
t
for the automatic tuning of PID controllers and justifi-
cation to use the internal feedback loop in controlling
ys ) ys + ys exp -
τdesired
∑ - 1 (5)
i)1 (τdesired)i
integrating processes. Other techniques such as model

{
reduction and tuning are also described in detail for
dm(ys - y)
completeness in constructing an autotuner.
bmkc +
dtm

}
2. Analysis on Structural Limitations of PID
Controllers 1 dm dm d(ys - y)
In general, the PID controller is structurally suitable τi dt m
∫0
t
(ys - y) dt + τd
dt
+
dtm

{
and shows an acceptable control performance for open-
dm-1(ys - y) 1 dm-1
loop stable processes. On the other hand, it is inher-
ently difficult to control the integrating process with it bm-1kc + ∫0
t
(ys - y) dt +
dtm-1 τi dt m-1

} {
efficiently. The reasons why it is not suitable to control
the integrating process are discussed from mathematical dm-1 d(ys - y) d(ys - y)
as well as intuitive viewpoints in this section. τd + ... + b1kc +
dtm-1 dt dt

}
The following mathematical analysis would show the
structural limitation of the PID controller in controlling
1 d d d(ys - y)
the integrating process. From this analysis we can
conclude that the PID controller cannot match the τi dt
∫ t
0 s
(y - y) dt + τd
dt dt
+

{ }
process output with a desired trajectory inherently.
For an open-loop stable process controlled by the 1 d(ys - y)
conventional PID controller, consider the following b0kc (ys - y) +
τ
∫ t
0 s
(y - y) dt + τd
dt
)

( )(
desired output trajectory (eq 1), general linear time- i
invariant process transfer function (eq 2), PID controller 1 Am Am-1 A2
output (eq 3), and general nth-order differential equa- exp - + + ... + +
m
tion (eq 4). Here it should be noted that the following τdesired τ τdesiredm-1 τdesired2

) ( )∑
desired
statements are valid for the first-order desired trajectory
of (1) as well as an overdamped or an underdamped A1 t m Ai
high-order desired trajectory where ydesired and τdesired + A0 ) A0 + exp - (6)
τdesired τdesired i)1(τ
i
desired)
ydesired ) ys - ys exp(-t/τdesired) (1)
1
A0 ) b0kcysτdesired (7)
bmsm + bm-1sm-1 + ... + b1s + b0 τi
Gp(s) ) (2)
ansn + an-1sn-1 + ... + a1s + 1
respectively, by substituting (1) for y and (3) for u in
kc d(ys - y) (4), where Ai are some constants. Note that the constant
u(t) ) kc(ys - y) +
τi
∫0t(ys - y) dt + kcτd dt
(3) term (eq 7) is generated from the integral term of the
PID controller. By comparison of (5) and (6), it is clear
that the left-hand and right-hand sides of (4) have the
dny dn-1y dy same structure: a constant term plus an exponential
an + an-1 n-1 + ... + a1 +y)
dt n
dt dt term. Therefore, we can recognize that it is possible to
satisfy the equality of (4) by choosing appropriate tuning
dmu dm-1u du parameters. Thus, at least, the desired trajectory can
bm m + bm-1 m-1 + ... + b1 + b0u (4)
dt dt dt be achieved from the viewpoint of the structure.
 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 36, No. 12, 1997 5331
We can repeat the previous procedure for the inte-
grating process with the assumption of a perfect track-
ing. As explained previously, the integrating process
can be represented by the general form

bmsm + bm-1sm-1 + ... + b1s + b0

Gp(s) ) (8)
s(ansn + an-1sn-1 + ... + a1s + 1)

(8) can be rewritten like (9).

dn+1y d ny d2y dy
an an-1 ... a1
dt2 dt
+ + + + )
dtn+1 dtn
dmu dm-1u du
bm m + bm-1 m-1 + ... + b1 + b0u (9) Figure 1. Typical closed-loop response of an integrating process
dt dt dt
controlled by the conventional PID controller.

The left-hand side of (9) is rewritten by substituting (1) b0kc

for y in (9) as follows. 0)
τi
∫0t(ys - y) dt (11)

τdesired ( )
anys(-1)n+2
n+1
exp -
t
τdesired
+
an-1ys(-1)n+1

τdesired n
×
Notice that the integral term from the initial time to
the time corresponding to the steady state should go to
zero to guarantee a zero offset in the end for the

( ) ( )
integrating process. On the other hand, because the
t a1ys(-1)3 t process has a time delay or nonminimum phase zero,
exp - + ... + exp - + achievable control performances are confined due to the
τdesired τdesired2 τdesired stability condition. The integral term from the initial

( )
time to the rise time becomes some large positive value
ys(-1)2 t for a positive step set-point change as shown in Figure
exp - ) 1. Therefore, this accumulated integral term to the rise
τdesired τdesired time should be decreased to zero by allowing a large

( )(
n+1a i+1
t i-1(-1)
ys exp - ∑ +
τdesired i)2 (τdesired)i
The right-hand sides of (9) and (4) are the same so the
right-hand side of (9) is equal to (6). From (10) and (6),
it is clear that the left-hand and right-hand sides of (9)
have a different structure: the left-hand side has only
an exponential term, but the right-hand side has a
constant term plus an exponential term. So any pa-
rameters cannot make both sides the same. As men-
tioned previously, the constant term of (6) is generated
from the integral term of the PID controller; in other
words, for integrating processes the structural limita-
tion of the PID controller is caused by its integral term.
If we remove the integral term from it, we can overcome
the limitation. However, we cannot do it because the
integral term is essential to remove disturbances and/
or modeling errors.
We can also analyze the closed-loop dynamics intu-
itively to understand why the PID controller is not
suitable to control the integrating process effectively.
From this analysis, we can recognize that if it is used
to control the integrating process, there will be an
excessive overshoot. The reason why an excessive
overshoot exists can be understood intuitively by con-
sidering (9) carefully. When the process reaches a
steady state, all derivative terms with respect to time
are zero, so all terms of the right-hand side of (9) are
zero and also all terms of the left-hand side of (9) are
zero except the last term (b0u). Strictly speaking, on
the assumption that the offset is zero, only the integral
part of the PID controller in the last term remains.
Therefore, we can rewrite (9) at steady state as follows.
)
overshoot inevitably as shown in Figure 1 since the final
integral term should be zero as shown in (11). If open-
1
(10) loop stable processes are considered by the same pro-
cedure, the left-hand side of (11) is a real positive
τdesired
number. So this overshoot is relatively smaller than
that of integrating processes.
In summary, the integral term of the PID controller
results in a structural limitation in controlling integrat-
ing processes and its structure is suitable to control the
open-loop stable process. Therefore, it is obvious that,
first of all, we must convert the integrating process to
an open-loop stable process to control it effectively by
using the PID controller. We will mention the strategy
to convert an integrating process to an open-loop stable
process in section 4.
3. Proposed On-Line Process Identification
Strategy
In this section we propose a new identification method
for integrating processes. It can also be used for other
processes. An identification method using a P controller
was proposed (Sung and Lee (1996)) to identify the
integrating process. It has several drawbacks even
though it can identify integrating processes efficiently.
First, it uses a very simple integrating model: first order
plus time delay with one integrator. It is not possible
to consider a high-order integrating process systemati-
cally. Second, it has an inherent shortcoming since it
is based on an identification method using a P control-
ler. That is, kc value of the P controller should be chosen
appropriately to guarantee an underdamped closed-loop
response.
For a process model, we use a relay as a signal
generator to activate the process as shown in Figure 2,
and then from measured data sets, we can obtain a
5332 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 36, No. 12, 1997

Figure 3. Amplitude of transformed output with respect to

various values.

where ns and ∆t denote the number of si and the

sampling time, respectively. τ and R are some con-
stants. (19) represents the recommended upper and
lower boundary values of si. As shown in (19), we choose
Figure 2. Activated process response by a relay feedback. a complex number for the si value. The real part of si
is located with an equal interval and has the following
process model as a high-order rational polynomial form meaning. From (12) and (13) we can recognize that the
by using a least-squares method. Here, we choose a Laplace transform of a signal is an integral of the signal
reference value of the relay on-off as a nonzero value with a weight of exp(-sit). Therefore, roughly speaking,
to increase zero-frequency information. The larger the we can say that the signals below τmax are mainly
reference value used, the much more low-frequency considered to estimate the process model. Together
information that would be contained in the signal. In with the real part, we have to choose an appropriate
this paper, we choose a relay to activate the process, imaginary part. Here we use the imaginary part of si
but a P controller or another signal generator can be to extract specific frequency information. By an easy
used. The underlying concept of this identification algebraic manipulation, it can be shown that when a
method is very simple. signalsy(t) or u(t)sincludes the frequency correspond-
Consider the following Laplace transforms ing to the imaginary part (R/τ), the data set of this
frequency (R/τ) is amplified relative to other frequency
y(s) ) ∫0∞exp(-st)y(t) dt (12) data sets. This can be understood by the simple
simulation result given in Figure 3. When sin t enters
u(s) ) ∫0∞exp(-st)u(t) dt (13)
as the input signal, Figure 3 shows the amplitude of
the transformed output signal. As shown in Figure 3,
the maximum peak appears at ω ) R/τ ) 1.0. From
G(s) ) y(s)/u(s) (14) this result we can infer the meaning of the imaginary
part. The imaginary part means the specific frequency
where y(s), u(s), and G(s) denote Laplace transforms of corresponding to the data we want to acquire. This says
the process output, the controller output, and the that we can find all desired frequency data sets of a
process transfer function, respectively. (12) and (13) are signal mainly by varying the imaginary part of si.
estimated by a numerical technique for several complex As shown in Figure 3, as the value of R is larger, the
number si values. G(si)’s are calculated from (14) and peak corresponding to the desired frequency is bigger.
used to obtain a specified model with a least-squares Therefore, we should choose a large R value to mainly
method. extract the desired information. However, if we choose
We can integrate (12) and (13) numerically as too large an R value, we will identify too high a
t)tendexp(-s t)
frequency even though a large τmax is chosen. From
- exp(-si(t + ∆t)) many simulations we can recognize that 3π is an
∑
i
y(si) ) y(t) (15) appropriate choice for R, so we recommend this value.
t)0 si With R ) 3π, we recommend τmin as τmax/3 and τmax as
t)tendexp(-s twice the dominant time constant plus time delay of the
it) - exp(-si(t + ∆t))
u(si) ) ∑
t)0 si
u(t) (16)
closed-loop response or the triple of the ultimate period
of the process. If we choose τmin as too small a value,
this results in identifying too high a frequency region
y(si) as shown above. To identify the low-frequency part
G(si) ) (17) more accurately, large τmin and τmax values should be
u(si) used. However, various τmin and τmax values result in
almost the same identified model only if the order of
i ) 1, 2, ..., ns (18) the model is sufficiently high. Note that the integral

( )
1 + jR 1 + jR cannot be complete until exp(-s1t)y(t) and exp(-s1t)u(t)
) s1 < s2 ) < ... < almost go to zero. We recommend the following equa-
τmax τ2

( )
tion as a criterion to end the integral.
1 + jR 1 + jR
sns-1 ) < sns ) (19)
τns-1 τmin exp(-tend/τmax) < 0.0005 (20)
 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 36, No. 12, 1997 5333
stable process efficiently as mentioned in the above
analysis section. In this section we will show conversion
as follows.
As shown in Figure 4, the overall process input is the
summation of the PID controller output and the internal
feedback signal.
Figure 4. Proposed control strategy to control an integrating
process.
unet(t) ) u(t) - kiy(t) (23)

To obtain a continuous model from the calculated From substitution of unet(t) for u(t) in (9), the following
G(si)’s, the following high-order rational polynomial is obtained:
model is used.
dn+1y d ny d2y dy
m m-1 an an-1 ... a1
bms + bm-1s + ... + b1s + b0 dt2 dt
+ + + + )
dtn+1 dtn
Gm(s) ) (21)
n
s(ans + an-1s n-1
+ ... + a1s + 1) dmunet dm-1unet dunet
bm bm-1 + ... + b1 + b0unet )
dt
m
+ m-1
Then a least-squares method minimizing the following dt dt
objective function can be used to obtain the coefficients dm(u - kiy) dm-1(u - kiy)
of (21) from the calculated G(si)’s bm + bm-1 + ... +
dtm dtm-1
b,a ns d(u - kiy) dmu
min[ ∑
i)1
|anG(si)sin+1 + an-1G(si) sin + ... + b1
dt
+ b0(u - kiy) ) bm m +
dt
dm-1u dmy
a1G(si) si2 - bmsm - bm-1sm-1 - ... - bm-1 + ... + b0 u - bm ki -
dtm-1 dtm
b1si - b0 + G(si) si|2] (22)
dm-1y
bm-1ki m-1 - ... - b0kiy (24)
where b and a denote vectors composed of the coef- dt
ficients of the denominator and the numerator, respec-
tively, and |‚| represents Euclidean norm. We recom- By a simple manipulation (25) is obtained. That is, the
mend ns g 6(n + m) with an equal interval between
si’s to guarantee accuracy of the least-squares method. dn+1y d ny d2y dy dmy
an an-1 ... a1 bmk i
Here, we can use a low order plus time delay model dt2 dt
+ + + + + +
dtn+1 dtn dtm
instead of the high-order model of (21). However, to use
it, a nonlinear optimization problem should be solved dm-1y dy
bm-1ki m-1 + ... + b1ki + b0kiy )
to estimate the model coefficients due to the time delay. dt dt
It is much more difficult to solve the nonlinear optimi- dn+1y dmy
zation problem compared with the linear optimization an n+1 + ... (am-1 + bmki) m +
problem using a least-squares method. Therefore, we dt dt
should use the high-order model of (21) rather than a dm-1y
(am-2 + bm-1ki) m-1 + ... + b0kiy )
low order plus time delay model as the process model. dt
In summary, from the controller output and the
measured process output data, (15)-(17) can be calcu- dmu dm-1u du
bm m + bm-1 m-1 + ... + b1 + b0u (25)
lated, and then we can estimate the coefficients of (21) dt dt dt
using the least-squares method to satisfy (22). The
proposed on-line process identification method is very overall system including the internal feedback loop
simple and does not require any structural information becomes the following open-loop stable system since
on the closed-loop and any complicated numerical b0kiy appears in the left-hand side of (26) where ci are
techniques such as root-finding or nonlinear optimiza-
tion tools. It shows good accuracy in modeling the dn+1y dmy dm-1y
cn + ... + cm + cm-1 + ... + b0kiy )
integrating process, which will be shown in section 5. dtn+1 dtm dtm-1
dmu dm-1u du
4. Proposed Control Strategy bm m + bm-1 m-1 + ... + b1 + b0u (26)
dt dt dt
As mentioned previously, the conventional PID con-
troller cannot control the integrating process effectively some constants made up of ai, bi, and ki. We can say
without converting it to an open-loop stable process. We that the outer-loop PID controller can effectively control
use a control structure as shown in Figure 4 to control the overall system based on the results of the previous
the integrating process effectively. This structure which analysis given in section 2.
uses an internal feedback loop is not a totally new To construct an overall open-loop stable process, we
concept. In recent years, Sung and Lee (1996) used the first should tune the internal feedback loop. In this
same structure. However, their identification and paper we tune ki by using a modified Ziegler-Nichols
control strategy can be used for a very simple model tuning method. Because the original Ziegler-Nichols
(first order plus time delay with one integrator). The tuning method was developed for the open-loop stable
simple model cannot represent a more complicated process, the internal feedback loop tuned by it results
integrating process with an acceptable accuracy. in excessive oscillation. As a result, the overall process
We use an internal feedback loop to convert the becomes severely underdamped. Then the tuning rule
integrating process to an open-loop stable process. Then for the outer-loop PID controller cannot treat it (this
the PID controller can control the overall open-loop will be mentioned later). So we modified the original
5334 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 36, No. 12, 1997

Table 1. Tuning Rule of the PID Controller for the this paper is given in Appendix I. Seborg et al. (1989)
Second Order Plus Time Delay Model indicates disadvantages of this type of reduction. Since
Set-Point Change the fitting frequency region is wide and the frequency
responses are unusual, poor fitting results can be
{ (θτ) }ζ,
-0.983
kkc ) -0.04 + 0.333 + 0.949 ζ e 0.9 obtained. In this approach, the frequency region is
confined by the ultimate frequency and also the restruc-
(θτ) + {1.408(θτ) }ζ, tured PID controller would not treat unusual processes.
-0.832
kkc ) -0.544 + 0.308 ζ > 0.9
Then, there would be no serious problems.
After we get a reduced second order plus time delay
{
τi θ θ
τ
) 2.055 + 0.072
τ
ζ, ( )} τ
e1 model, we can tune the outer-loop PID controller by the
second order plus time delay tuning rule (Sung et al.

{
τi θ θ (1996)). The tuning rule was developed by fitting the
τ
) 1.768 + 0.329
τ
ζ, ( )} τ
>1 optimal data sets obtained from the optimization with

{ [ ]}{ () }
the integral of the time-weighted absolute value of the
τ (θ/τ)1.06ζ θ
-1.09
error (ITAE) as the objective function. Although it is
) 1 - exp - 0.55 + 1.683
τd 0.87 τ composed of only several algebraic equations without
any complicated numerical techniques as shown in
Disturbance Rejection Table 1, the control results by this tuning rule are
almost the same as those of the optimal tuning. Here,
(θτ) + 2.189(θτ) θ
-2.001 -0.766
kkc ) -0.67 + 0.297 ζ, < 0.9 the tuning rule is valid for the second order plus time
τ
delay process of 0.25 < ζm < 5.0 and 0.05 < θm/τm <
θ θ 2 θ
kk ) -0.365 + 0.26( - 1.4) + 2.189( ) 2.0. A too large ki value is not recommended because
-0.766
c ζ, g 0.9
τ τ τ the tuning rule cannot treat a severe underdamped
τi process (ζm < 0.25).
θ 0.52 θ
τ
) 2.2122()
τ
- 0.3,
τ
< 0.4 In summary, a high-order rational polynomial model
Gm(s) is obtained by the proposed identification method

( )
τi θ and then ki is tuned by (27). Using the model reduction
) -0.975 + 0.91 - 1.845 +
τ τ method, we estimate the reduced overall second order

{ 1 - exp - [ ζ
0.15 + 0.33(θ/τ)
× ]} plus time delay model. Finally the outer-loop PID
controller is tuned by Sung et al.’s (1996) tuning rule.

{ θ
(
5.25 - 0.88 - 2.8
τ
2
, )} θ
τ
g 0.4
5. Simulation Study
τ θ
()
-0.53
) -1.9 + 1.576
τd τ
+
Example 1. An Usual Integrating Process. We

{ [ ]}
ζ choose an actual process like (28). By the proposed on-
1 - exp - ×
-0.15 + 0.939(θ/τ)-1.121

{ () }
θ Gp(s) )
e-0.2s
(28)
-1.171
1.45 + 0.969
τ s(s + 1)3

Ziegler-Nichols tuning method to tune the internal line process identification strategy, we get the following
feedback loop for less oscillatory responses as follows. high-order polynomial process model:

ki ) kcu/4 (27) Gm(s) )

It is noteworthy that if the best controller is available,
the maximum achievable control performance is deter-
mined by the nonminimum phase zero and the time
delay of the process. Roughly speaking, this statement
is also valid for the open-loop stable process controlled
by the PID controller. As shown in (26), the numerator
(zeros) of the process cannot be changed by the internal
feedback loop. Therefore, even though the internal
feedback loop is tuned arbitrarily, the control perfor-
mances are almost the same only if the outer-loop PID
controller is tuned optimally and the overall system is
an open-loop stable process. From many simulations,
we reached the same conclusion. That is, the outer-loop
PID controller shows almost the same performance for
any ki value between kcu/4 and kcu/100.
After the tuning of the internal feedback loop, the
outer-loop PID controller should be tuned for the overall
system of the high-order polynomial. We must reduce
the overall system to a low order plus time delay system
since the PID controller tuning rules are usually based
on the first or second order plus time delay model rather
than a high-order rational polynomial model. The
model reduction method (Sung and Lee (1996)) used in
0.00002s4 - 0.0007s3 + 0.0144s2 - 0.1764s + 1
s(-0.0007s5 + 0.0317s4 + 1.0986s3 + 3.1005s2 + 3.0325s + 1)
(29)
From Figure 5, we can recognize that the proposed on-
line process identification method provides a good model
accuracy, where τmin ) 2.0 and τmax ) 10.0 are chosen
for the identification. Even though we choose τmax
between 5.0 and 50.0 with τmin ) 2.0 or τmin between
1.0 and 5.0 with τmax ) 10.0 arbitrarily, the identifica-
tion results are almost the same as those shown in
Figure 5. From these results and our experiences in
extensive simulations, we can conclude that the pro-
posed identification method guarantees an acceptable
robustness to the choice of τmin and τmax. However, note
that if τmax is chosen as a large value, then 1/τmax of (20)
becomes such a small value that a long identification
time is needed to satisfy (20). If τmin is small, the
identified frequency region is too high.
We get the ultimate data from Gm(s), and then we can
tune ki by a modified Ziegler-Nichols tuning method.
We used the relation of ki ) kcu/4.0 rather than the
original Ziegler-Nichols tuning method (ki ) kcu/2.0) to

Figure 5. Bode plot of the actual process and the identified model
with various τmin and τmax values.
Figure 6. Bode plot of the reduced overall model and the overall
model.
guarantee an acceptable damping factor. The ultimate
gain (kcu) is 0.7927. From this result we tune ki as
0.1982.
Now, with the obtained process model and the value
of the internal feedback loop gain, we obtain the
following reduced second order plus time delay model
by using the model reduction method of Appendix I.
5.0460e-1.4654s
Greduced ) (30)
(3.2596)2s2 + 2(3.2596)(0.5606)s + 1
To show the accuracy of this model reduction method,
we compared the Bode plots of the process model with
that of the reduced model. From Figure 6 it is proved
that the model reduction shows a good accuracy. Since
(30) is a common second order plus time delay model,
the PID parameters are determined for both servo and
regulator problems by employing the second order plus
time delay tuning rule (Sung et al. (1996)). Here we
tuned the controller differently for a servo and a
regulatory problem to guarantee better control perfor-
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 36, No. 12, 1997 5335
Figure 7. Control results of the proposed control strategy and
the PID controller: (a) set-point change; (b) disturbance rejection.
mances. If the PID controller designed for the step set-
point change is used to reject a slow varying distur-
bance, it shows very poor control performances. On the
other hand, a very large overshoot is inevitable if the
PID controller designed for a step input disturbance
rejection is used. Therefore, the operator should con-
sider the main objective of the controller in the tuning
step to guarantee a good control performance. (For
detail, refer to Sung and Lee (1996).)
The tuning results are given below, and the perfor-
mances of the controller tuned by these parameters are
shown in Figure 7 for the servo and the regulatory
problem, respectively.
(1) for the servo problem
kc ) 0.2604, τi ) 3.7595, τd ) 2.9543 (31)
(2) for the regulatory problem
kc ) 0.6073, τi ) 3.6705, τd ) 2.3163 (32)
As shown in Figure 7, the proposed control strategy
shows a control performance superior to that of the
conventional PID controller for both the set-point change
and disturbance rejection problem. Here the conven-
tional PID controller is tuned by the Ziegler-Nichols
tuning rule based on the identified results by the
continuous cycling method.
Example 2. Process Output Corrupted by Mea-
surement Noises. Here we consider the process
e-0.3s
Gp(s) ) (33)
s(s + 1)(2s + 1)
where the process output is corrupted by (0.5 uniformly
distributed random measurement noises. The activated
process input and output are shown in Figure 8. In this
simulation, we use a hysteresis of 1.0 to prevent a
transient fluctuation of the relay at zero-crossing points
5336 Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 36, No. 12, 1997
Figure 8. Activated process responses by a relay feedback with
hysteresis for a noisy process.
Figure 9. Bode plot of the identified model and the actual process
with measurement noises.
of the process output. Figure 9 compares Bode plots of
the identified model and the process. From this and
several additional simulation results, we can recognize
that the proposed identification method can incorporate
measurement noises efficiently. However, it should be
noted that the variation of the activated process output
should be large enough to guarantee a more accurate
model relatively compared to the magnitude of mea-
surement noises.
Example 3. Process Input with a Disturbance.
Consider the process
e-0.3s
Gp(s) ) (34)
s(s + 1)2(3s + 1)
where the process input has a 10% input disturbance
to the magnitude of the relay. Figure 10 shows the
result of identification. From Figure 10, we conclude
that Bode plots of the identified model and the process
show almost the same frequency shape. So we can get
Figure 10. Bode plot of the identified model and the actual
process with a disturbance.
the conclusion that the proposed identification method
provides an acceptable robustness to disturbances.
6. Conclusions
In this paper, we proposed a simple and new on-line
process identification and an autotuning method for
integrating processes. The method has a couple of
advantages. First, it does not require any complicated
numerical techniques such as a root-finding technique
or nonlinear optimization. Second, the process model
is estimated from only measured input-output data sets
without any structural closed-loop information. There-
fore, this method can incorporate an actuator saturation
during the identification step. Also, according to the
desire of the operator, various test signal generators
including the P, PI, and PID controller, relay, and pulse
or step signal generator can be used to activate the
process. From the simulation study we can conclude
that it provides good model performances and robust-
ness to measurement noises and disturbances.
We showed that the conventional PID controller has
a structural limitation in controlling the integrating
process. On the basis of the analysis, we proposed a
control strategy using an internal feedback loop to
control the integrating process more efficiently. Here,
the internal feedback loop plays an important role in
converting the integrating process to an open-loop stable
process.
A model reduction method is introduced to tune the
outer-loop PID controller easily. It reduces the overall
transfer function to a second order plus time delay
model so that the usual second order plus time delay
tuning rules can be used to tune the outer-loop PID
controller. From simulation study and analysis we
conclude that the proposed control strategy promises to
contribute much to the control problems of the integrat-
ing process.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported in part by the Korea Science
and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through the
Automation Research Center at Pohang University of
Science and Technology.

Nomenclature
Ai ) arbitrary constant
ai, bi, ci ) coefficients of the process transfer function
Gc(s), Gm(s), Gp(s), Goverall(s), Greduced(s) ) transfer functions
of the controller, model, process, overall process, and
reduced model, respectively
kc, ki, km, kcu ) controller gain, internal feedback gain, static
gain of the model, and ultimate gain
si ) complex value to estimate the Laplace transform
numerically
t, tend ) time and time to end the integration
u(t), unet(t) ) PID controller output and net process input
ydesired(t), ys, y(t) ) desired trajectory, set point, and process
output
y(s), u(s) ) Laplace transforms of the process and controller
output, respectively
Greek Symbols
R ) some constant to assign a frequency
θm, θp ) time delay of the model and process, respectively
τd, τi ) derivative and integral time of the PID controller,
respectively
τdesired, τm ) time constant of the desired trajectory and
model, respectively
τmin, τmax ) minimum and maximum time to estimate the
Laplace transform numerically
ω, ωu ) frequency and ultimate frequency, respectively
ζm ) damping factor of the model
Appendix I
In this paper, we should estimate the following
reduced second order plus time delay model by using a
model reduction method to tune the outer-loop PID
controller parameters with a second order plus time
delay tuning rule. That is
Gm(s) km exp(-θms)
Goverall(s) ) = 2 2
) of an Auto-tuned PID Regulator and an Adaptive Predictive
1 + kiGm(s) τm s + 2τmζms + 1
Greduced(s) (A1)
where km, θm, τm, and ζm denote the static gain, the time
delay, the time constant, and the damping factor of the
reduced model, respectively, and ki is the gain of the
internal feedback loop. Gm(s), Goverall(s), and Greduced(s)
represent the transfer function of the model, the overall
process model, and the reduced overall model. From
(21) and (A1), we can obtain a second order plus time
delay model easily by using the following equations. The
static gain of the reduced model is obtained by (A2)
km ) Goverall(0)
and τm and ζm are estimated to satisfy (A3) as much as
possible.
|Goverall(jω)| = |Greduced(jω)| )
| |
km exp(-jθmω) km
x(1 - τm2ω2) + (2τmζm)2
2 2
)
1 - τm ω + j(2τmζm)
By using a least-squares method, τm and ζm satisfying
(A3) as much as possible can be directly estimated from
(A4) and (A5) (Levy (1959))
Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Vol. 36, No. 12, 1997 5337
τm4|Goverall(jωi)|2ωi4 +
(4τm2ζm2 - 2τm2)|Goverall(jωi)|2ωi2 )
km2 - |Goverall(jωi)|2 (A4)
0 < ω0 < ω1 < ... < ωi < ... < ωu (A5)
and additionally the following phase lag equation for
the second order plus time delay model is used to
estimate the time delay of the reduced model
-π ) -θmωu + arctan 2(-2ζmωuτm,1 - ωu2τm2) (A6)
τ + arctan 2(-2ζmτmωu,1 - ωu2τm2)
θm ) (A7)
ωu
where ωu denotes the ultimate frequency of the overall
transfer function.
As a result, we can estimate the second order plus
time delay model using (A2), (A4), and (A7) if ki and
Gm(s) are available.
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Revised manuscript received August 15, 1997
Accepted August 21, 1997X
IE9605600
X Abstract published in Advance ACS Abstracts, October 15,
1997.