2013 Sixth International Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Design
PID tuning based on improved quantum genetic
algorithm
Jian zhang, Li Liu, Huanzhou Li, Zhangguo Tang
School of Physics and Electronics Engineering, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
Email: dctscu07@163.com
Abstract-Parameters tuning is the key of the design of PID
controller, for the PID parameters tuning, a PID parameters
tuning method based on improved quantum genetic algorithm
is proposed in this study. This study proposes an improved
genetic algorithm (IQGA) which introduces a dynamic
adjustment strategy of population and search intervals to
improve the convergence speed, search ability and stability of
quantum genetic algorithm-based PID parameters tuning
method. Experimental results show that the proposed
algorithm can obtain a good performance in PID parameters
tuning problem.
Keywords- quantum genetic algorithm; PID parameters;
tuning
I. INTRODUCTION
PID control is the strategy which is widely used in
industrial process control in recent years [1-4]. The basic idea
is to construct a PID controller which made up of the
proportional, integral and derivative of the system deviation
linearly to control the controlled object. PID controller
considers both the transient and steady-state performance,
and easy to implement for its simple structure and high
reliability. PID controller has robust performance and its
control quality is not sensitive to the changes of the
controlled objects, so it is able to meet general industrial
process requirements[5]. Since the invention of the PID
controller (largely due to Elmer's invention of ship autopilot)
in 1910 and the Ziegler-Nichols PID parameter tuning
method (Z-N method) in 1942[6], the applications of PID
controller have been developed and popularized extremely[7].
The performance of the system control is depends on the
parameters of the PID controller, so the PID parameter
tuning has become a core issue of PID control.
PID parameters tuning includes engineering tuning
method and theoretical calculations tuning method.
Engineering tuning method tunes the parameters according
to engineering experience directly, and it often requires a lot
of experience, and different objective functions corresponds
to different experiences; theoretical calculations tuning
method obtains the PID parameters based on the
mathematical model of the system. It needs a lot of
calculation. PID parameter tuning is a complex and tedious
process, and the research on PID parameter tuning method
has been an important issue in control field[8]. In order to
improve the efficiency of the PID controller parameter
tuning, many intelligent optimization algorithms have been
applied to PID parameter tuning, and have achieved good
978-0-7695-5079-4/13 $26.00 © 2013 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/ISCID.2013.125
control effect. Such as genetic algorithm, particle swarm
optimization, ant colony optimization algorithm, etc.
Quantum genetic algorithm (QGA) is a probability based
optimization algorithm which combines the concept of
quantum computing and traditional genetic algorithm, and it
has small population size, fast convergence speed and strong
global search capabilities[9,10]. In this paper, an improved
quantum genetic algorithm is used to PID parameters tuning,
and can be obtained more satisfactory results in a short time.
II. RATIONALE OF PID CONTROL
PID control system mainly composed of PID controller
and controlled object, and a typical PID control system can
described as Figure 1.
y (t )
r (t ) e(t ) u (t )
Figure 1. PID control system
PID controller is a linear controller, and the relationship
of the control error (deviation) signal e(t ) , input signal
r (t ) and the output signal y (t ) can be described as below:
(1)
e(t ) = r (t ) − y (t )
The deviation signal which sent into PID controller is
performed proportional, integral and differential operation
respectively, and then performed a linear weighted operation,
finally, to control the controlled object. Common PID
control system is mainly divided into continuous PID control
system and discrete PID control system. The continuous PID
controller can be descried as:
1 t d e(t )
u (t ) = K p [e(t ) + ³ e(τ ) d τ +Td ] (2)
Ti 0 dt
where u (t ) is the output of the PID controller, and K p , Ti
and Td is proportional coefficient, integral time constant
and derivative time constant, respectively.
Control equation can also be written as the form of the
transfer function:
44
 U ( s) 1 B. Improved Quantum Genetic Algorithm (IQGA)
Gc ( s ) = = K p [1 + Td s ]
E (s) Ti s
or
U (s) 1
Gc ( s ) = = Kp + Ki + Kd s (4)
E (s) s adjusts the range and the population size of each sub-interval
where, integral coefficient K i = K p Ti ˈ derivative
coefficient K d = K pTd DŽPID closed loop control system can
be described as:
R( s ) E (s) U (s)
Gc ( s ) G (s)
Figure 2. PID closed loop control system
To discredit formula (5) and the expression can described as
below:
k
e(k ) − e(k − 1)
u (k ) = K p e(k ) + K i ¦ e(k )T + K d
j =0 T © sin(+θ i ) cos(+θ i ) ¹
where T is the sampling period and k is the sample
number.
A system’s performance is affected by the parameters of
K p , K i and K d of the PID controller. PID parameter
tuning problem is to determine the best combination of these
three parameters to obtain the optimal performance of the
control system. System performance includes regulating
time, error of steady state and overshoot, etc.
III. IMPROVED QUANTUM GENETIC ALGORITHM
A. Quantum Genetic Algorithm
QGA is a probabilistic optimization algorithm which is
to borrow fully the concept and theory of Quantum
computing (such as qubits and quantum superposition state)
on top of the genetic algorithm. The smallest information
unit in QGA is a qubit. The state of a qubit can be either 0 or
1, which can be represented as: ψ = α 0 + β 1 . where
α , β are two complex numbers representing the probability
amplitudes of the corresponding state: α + β = 1 . α ,
2 2
β represent the probability of the qubit in the state of 0
2
and 1 respectively. QGA uses a pair of complex numbers to
define a qubit. This representation has the advantage that it
is able to represent any superposition of states The
traditional genetic algorithm uses mating, mutation, etc.
operations to maintain the diversity of the population. QGA
applies quantum rotation gate to maintain the diversity of the
population, quantum rotation gate, which is a unitary
operation, only to change the phase of the qubit, does not
change the length of the qubit.
§ α i' · § cos(+θ i ) − sin(+θ i ) · § α i ·
¨ '¸=¨ ¸¨ ¸ (6)
© βi ¹ © sin(+θi ) cos(+θ i ) ¹ © β i ¹
where +θi is the rotation angle of each qubit.
(3)
Inspired by the phenomenon from the natural world, this
study divides the search space into several sub-intervals, and
then evenly allocates initial population to each sub-interval.
In successive search process, the algorithm constantly
in term of its fitness until the optimal solution is found.
Firstly, the whole search space is divided into n
sub-intervals. Supposing there are m variables in each
sub-interval. And for PID parameter turning, real coding is
Y ( s) adopted to avoid the frequent conversion of encoding and
decoding in binary coding and improve computational
accuracy. So, double chains real coding is adopted in this
study. And then the search sub-intervals and the population
sizes of every sub-interval are adjusted dynamically. The
details can be seen in[11].
The evolution of the population adopts quantum rotation
gate:
§ cos(+θ i ) − sin(+θ i ) ·
(5) U (+θi ) = ¨ ¸ (7)
−
t
+θ i = θ ⋅ e tmax (8)
where θ ∈ [0.001π , 0.05π ] is a fixed angle, tmax is the
maximum iterative number. From equation (8), it is easy to
get the rotation angle of the quantum rotation gate decreases
gradually with the increase of the iterative number. And the
mutation operation is completed by Hadamard gate. It is also
a kind of rotation, and the rotation angle is π 4 . So the
mutation operation increases the diversity of the population.
IV. PID PARAMETERS TUNING BASED ON IQGA
A. Selection of the objective function
It is a parameter optimization problem based on a given
objective function that using quantum genetic algorithm to
tune PID controller parameters. The dynamic performance
(response speed, overshoot, adjust time) will be improved by
searching a set of optimal PID control parameters.
There are many forms of objective function of the
control system, in order to obtain a satisfactory dynamics
2
performance and prevent too big control power, chooses the
following formula as the optimal parameter indicator [5]:
∞
J = ³ ª¬ w1 e(t ) + w2 u 2 (t ) º¼ d t + w3tu (9)
0
where, tu is the rise time and w1 , w2 , w3 is the weights,
respectively.
To avoid overshoot, the penalty function is introduced in
above formula and shown as below:
∞
J = ³ ª¬ w1 e(t ) + w2 u 2 (t ) + w4 e(t ) º¼ d t + w3tu if e(t ) < 0 (10)
0
where, w4  w1 .
B. Selection of the parameters of the algorithm
Two controlled objects are selected to verify the
performance of the algorithm:
45
 400 the convergence speed and search accuracy can be
(1) G1 ( s ) = ( K P ∈ [0,5], K i , K d ∈ [0,1]) improved.
s + 50s
2

1.6
(2) G2 ( s ) = 2 ( K P ∈ [0, 20], K i , K d ∈ [0,1])
37.6

s + 2.584s + 1.6 37.4 GA

QGA
The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated 37.2
IQGA
by comparing its results with the traditional GA[5] and
QGA[12]. Formula (6) and (7) are selected as the object 37

function of the algorithm. Where, w1 = 0.999 , w2 = 0.001 , 36.8

w3 = 2.0 , w4 = 100 , and the sampling time is set as 0.001s. 36.6

Every algorithm chooses the same parameter values. The 36.4

number of the sub-intervals of the parameters K p , K i 36.2

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
and K d are set as n = 3 , the population size of every (a) G1 ( s )
sub-interval is set as p0 = 5 . The population size of every 101.79

sub-interval is constrained by pt ≤ 2 p0 during the evolution

101.78
process, and the maximum generation is max_ gen = 100 .
GA
Every experiment runs 100 times. 101.77 QGA
IQGA
C. Experimental results 101.76
The optimization results of the three algorithms are
shown in Table 1 and Figure 3. Table 1 shows the average 101.75
values, the optimal values, the worst values and variance of
every algorithm. As can be seen from Table 1, the proposed 101.74
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
algorithm has the best search ability and stability. Figure 3 (b) G2 ( s )
shows the convergence results of 100 experiments of the
three methods. It can be seen that the fluctuation of the curve Figure 3. Comparasion of the optimization results of GA, QGA and
IQGA
of IQGA is the most stable, and most of the curve is under
the other two curves. This indicates that IQGA has the best 38.5
search ability and stability. GA
38 QGA
TABLE I. COMPARASION OF THE OPTIMIZATION RESULTS OF IQGA
GA, QGA AND IQGA(100 TIMES EXPERIMENTS) 37.5
Method
System Items 37
GA QGA IQGA
Ave 36.5578 36.3143 36.2778 36.5
Min 36.2932 36.2644 36.2594
G1 ( s )
Max 37.3038 36.5083 36.2784 36
10 20 30 40 50
Var 5.02 e-2 2.22 e-3 5.50 e-6 (a) G1 ( s )
Ave 101.7813 101.7543 101.7525 101.81
Min 101.7509 101.7499 101.7503 GA
G2 ( s ) 101.8
QGA
Max 101.7885 101.7614 101.7526 IQGA
101.79
Var 7.10 e-5 6.26 e-6 7.89 e-8
101.78

Chooses the best one result of 100 times experiments of 101.77

every method, and shows the first 50 generations 101.76

convergence results in Figure 4. It can be seen that the value 101.75
of the objective function of IQGA is far less than that of
QGA and GA at the beginning of the evolution. It is due to 101.74
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
that the well-distributed initial population can effectively (b) G2 ( s )
avoid the too concentrated or too sparse population in some
sub-intervals. And the strategy can help finding the better Figure 4. Comparasion of the convergence speed of the GA, QGA and
IQGA
value quickly. And the strategy of adjusts the range and the
population size of each sub-interval dynamically, can guide
Table 2 shows the final results of the three methods, and
the population approach the high fitness area gradually, so
Figure 5 shows the corresponding step response curves of
the PID control system. r is the input unit step signal, y0

46
is the unit step response of the system, and y1 , y2 , y3 is the V. CONCLUSION
unit step response after PID parameters tuning, respectively. This study proposes a PID tuning method using an IQGA.
In Figure (a), the three curves are close to the step signal for To introduce a dynamic population adjustment strategy to
that the system G1 ( s ) has no steady state error. The speed of QGA can improve the search ability of the QGA greatly, and
response and adjustment time has been improved by means the experimental results indicate that the method of this
of PID parameters tuning. The curve of y0 in Figure (b) study has a good performance in PID parameters tuning, and
has a strong search ability, fast convergence speed and
shows that system G2 ( s ) has steady state error before stability.
adjustment, and the three curves of y1 , y2 , y3 show that the
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y2
y1
y3
1
r

y0
0.5

0
0 5 10 15 20

(b) G2 ( s )
Figure 5. Unit step response of PID control system

47