2704
7, JULY 2009
Integrated Hybrid-PSO and Fuzzy-NN Decoupling
Control for Temperature of Reheating Furnace
Ying-Xin Liao, Jin-Hua She, Senior Member, IEEE, and Min Wu, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper presents an integrated method of intelli-
gent decoupling control as a solution to the problem of adjusting
the zone temperatures in a regenerative pusher-type reheating
furnace. First, a recurrent neural network (NN) for estimating the
zone temperatures and a heat transfer model for predicting billet
temperatures are built based on data from actual furnace opera-
tions. Next, a decoupling strategy in combination with a fuzzy NN
is used to control the zone temperatures. The architecture of the
controller is based on a fuzzy c-means clustering approach; and
the weights are optimized by a hybrid particle swarm optimization
(HPSO) algorithm, which integrates the global optimization of
density-based selection and the precise search of clonal expansion
in an immune system with the fast local search of particle swarm
optimization. HPSO is also used to optimize the zone temperature
settings to minimize three items: fuel consumption, the tempera-
ture gradient within a billet, and the error between the mean and
target temperatures of a billet at the furnace exit. The results of
actual runs demonstrate the validity of this method.
Index Terms—Decoupling control, fuzzy neural network (NN),
hybrid particle swarm optimization (HPSO), optimal setting,
regenerative pusher-type reheating furnace.
I. I NTRODUCTION
A REHEATING furnace is a crucial apparatus in a tandem
hot-rolling steel mill and is also a principal source of
power consumption [1]. The combustion process in a reheating
furnace has the features of strong coupling among zones, large
inertia, strong nonlinearity, and time-varying and distributed
parameters. The control objective is to minimize the energy
consumption and the amount of scale on the surface of billets
under the condition that the billets are uniformly reheated to the
specified temperature for rolling. Since the temperature control
performance and the temperature settings for a rolling mill not
only directly affect the quantity and quality of rolled steel but
also significantly influence fuel consumption and the lifetime of
the rollers, there has been increasing interest in the modeling,
optimal control, and temperature settings of the combustion
process in recent years [2]–[6]. Ko et al. [2] employed a predic-
Manuscript received May 31, 2007; revised March 16, 2009. First published
April 10, 2009; current version published July 1, 2009. This work was sup-
ported in part by the Recruiting Talent Foundation of Central South University
of Forestry and Technology under Grant 104-0078, by the National High-
Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) under
Grant 2006AA04Z172, and by the National Science Foundation of China under
Grant 60425310.
Y.-X. Liao is with the School of Electronic and Information Engineering,
Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
J.-H. She is with the School of Computer Science, Tokyo University of
Technology, Tokyo 192-0982, Japan.
M. Wu is with the School of Information Science and Engineering, Central
South University, Changsha 410083, China (e-mail: min@mail.csu.edu.cn).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2009.2019753
0278-0046/$25.00 © 2009 IEEE
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO.
tive control algorithm to develop a multivariable controller for
zone-temperature control based on a linear discrete-time model
of the process. Wang et al. [3] used a decoupling technique
and the Smith compensation method to solve the problems of
the strong coupling between variables and the time delay in
a reheating furnace. These control methods are all based on
a linear model of the process; but since a reheating furnace
is highly nonlinear, they do not provide satisfactory control
performance. Kim et al. [4] combined principal-component
analysis with a hierarchy of expert networks to extract an
inverse model for calculating three zone temperature settings
for a given target temperature of billets at the exit. However, that
model did not take the thickness, type, initial temperature, or
rolling speed of billets into account, even though these factors
have a significant influence on zone temperatures. In addition,
the processing time was very long (1 min/generation). Sibarani
and Samyudia [6] employed H∞ control theory to minimize
the temperature gradient within a billet to optimize the zone
temperature settings of a reheating furnace, and demonstrated
the validity of this method through simulations. However, due
to the complexity and large uncertainties of an actual reheating
furnace, it is difficult to use it in practice.
Neural networks (NNs) are primarily classified into two
types: feedforward and recurrent. While a feedforward NN is
essentially a static model and has the ability to describe a con-
tinuous nonlinear function with arbitrary precision, a recurrent
NN (RNN) is basically a dynamic model and can precisely
describe the behavior of a dynamic physical system [7]. NNs
and fuzzy logic (FL) are very useful for the control of a complex
system with a large uncertainty [8]–[15]. For example, Wai and
Chu [8] incorporated an adaptive tuning algorithm into a Petri
fuzzy NN (FNN) to adjust the network parameters based on the
Lyapunov stability theorem. They constructed a robust control
system for a linear induction motor and improved the stability
of the system when there are uncertainties. An adaptive neural
controller based on wavelet NN online approximate models is
presented in [9] for a class of nonlinear systems with a time
delay and unknown nonlinearities. In [11], an adaptive fuzzy
controller is designed using a schema coevolutionary algorithm
with two populations: solution level and schema level. More-
over, in [16], a genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to tune the
deep structure of fuzzy rules. A crucial problem in designing
an intelligent controller is how to automatically derive its struc-
ture and parameters to achieve an acceptable tradeoff between
accuracy and interpretability. One possible solution is to use a
radial-basis-function NN (RBF-NN), which is equivalent to a
fuzzy system [17] and is capable of nonlinear mapping [18].
Therefore, the combination of the knowledge representation
LIAO et al.: INTEGRATED HYBRID-PSO AND FUZZY-NN DECOUPLING CONTROL
of fuzzy inference and the nonlinear mapping ability of an
RBF-NN can provide a solution to the tradeoff problem [19],
and it can also yield satisfactory control performance for an
uncertain plant.
Particle swarm optimization (PSO), which searches for an
optimal solution on the basis of past information and interac-
tions among particles, is a population-based optimization tech-
nique that provides a quick search of the solution space [20]. It
has been utilized to solve the optimization problem for an FNN
and has been used in many applications in control engineering,
e.g., controlling a voice-controlled robot [21]. However, the
phenomenon of population regression due to information
sharing may produce local minima, and there is no satisfactory
refined local-search capability [22]. To solve this problem,
Xue et al. [23] brought simulated annealing into PSO for
velocity measurement among correlation sonar. Liu et al. [24]
incorporated differential evolution and chaos into PSO and
designed a multilayer feedforward NN. Lin and Hong [25]
improved PSO by introducing a local approximation, a
multielite strategy, and recursive singular-value decomposition.
The density-based selection [26] and clonal expansion [27]
of an immune system have also been integrated into PSO to
provide population diversity and a refined local search. These
improved types of PSOs are called hybrid PSOs (HPSOs).
This paper presents an integrated method of intelligent de-
coupling control for the temperature control in a regenerative
pusher-type reheating furnace. The method combines an FNN
decoupling controller (FNNDC) with an HPSO scheme. The
HPSO is employed to find optimal zone temperature settings
and a set of optimal parameters for an FNNDC. First, an
RBF-based RNN (RBF-RNN) is used to build a model for
estimating zone temperatures, and a model based on the theory
of heat transfer is derived to predict billet temperatures. Then,
an FNNDC is devised to control the zone temperatures, with the
architecture being determined by fuzzy c-means clustering and
the weights being optimized by HPSO. The HPSO algorithm
integrates the global-optimization capability of density-based
selection and the precise-search capability of clonal expansion
in an immune system with the fast local search of PSO. HPSO
is also utilized to optimize the zone temperature settings to
minimize fuel consumption, the temperature gradient within a
billet, and the error between the mean and target temperatures
of a billet at the exit of the furnace. Not only was the validity of
the method demonstrated through simulations, but the method
was also implemented in the regenerative pusher-type reheating
furnace of a steel mill and the validity was verified by ac-
tual runs.
Throughout this paper,  ·  denotes the Euclidean norm; and
the subscripts p, h, and s stand for the preheating, heating, and
soaking zones, respectively.
II. T EMPERATURE P REDICTION M ODELS
This section describes the regenerative pusher-type reheating
furnace being considered and presents two models for evalu-
ating system performance: an RBF-RNN model for predicting
the zone temperatures of the furnace and a heat transfer model
for estimating billet temperatures at the exit.
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2705
Fig. 1. Cross section of zone of regenerative pusher-type reheating furnace.
A. Combustion Process
The regenerative pusher-type reheating furnace considered
here has three zones (preheating, heating, and soaking), the
temperatures of which are coupled. The fuel is a gas–air mix-
ture. Fig. 1 shows a cross section of the furnace. The key com-
ponents of a zone are a pair of regenerative burners, one on each
side of the furnace; two gate valves for gas, one for each burner;
and a reversal valve, which enables the pipes to the burners to
switch between supplying air and exhausting flue gas.
A regenerative burner functions in one of two capacities:
burning gas or venting flue gas. When the burner on one side of
the furnace is burning gas, the one on the other side is venting
flue gas; and their functions are switched about every 2.5 min
by means of the reversal and gate valves. More specifically,
regarding burning (Regenerative burner B in Fig. 1), the gate
valve allows gas that has been preheated by the recuperator
in the flue into the burner; and a blower blows air into the
regenerator of the burner, where it passes around hot ceramic
pellets to preheat it. The gas–air mixture is ejected through
nozzles and burned. At the same time, the flue gas is drawn into
the regenerator (Regenerative burner A in Fig. 1) on the other
side of the furnace, where it heats up ceramic pellets, which
constitute the heat exchange medium for preheating air during
a burning operation. It is discharged through the reversal valve.
In addition, two electric control valves regulate the gas and air
fluxes to adjust the zone temperature.
B. Estimation of Zone Temperature
Since the combustion process is dynamic and very complex,
it is almost impossible to build a precise model of it based
on an analysis of the mechanism(s) involved. Our solution is
an RBF-RNN model for predicting zone temperatures. The
model contains a delayed feedback loop and can describe
the dynamics of the process with a prescribed precision. In
addition, a sequential learning algorithm is employed to enable
the model to adapt to changes in the process in a real-time
fashion. Since the combustion process can be characterized
by first-order dynamics, we chose the vector of zone tem-
peratures, T̂z (k) := [T̂p (k), T̂h (k), T̂s (k)]T , as the output of
2706
Fig. 2. Configuration of zone-temperature FNNDC system.
the RNN. There are three inputs: the vector of gas fluxes
u(k) := [up (k), uh (k), us (k)]T ; the air–gas ratio L(k); and
the one-step-delayed zone temperature vector T̂z (k − 1). The
RBF-RNN model is given by
 
T̂z (k) = f T̂z (k − 1), u(k), L(k) .
The RBF-RNN is trained using a sequential learning algo-
rithm that combines growing and pruning with an extended
Kalman filter (GAP-EKF). The sequential learning algorithm
using the GAP-EKF starts with no hidden neurons. It adds
hidden neurons according to the significance of the present
observation, or regulates network parameters by means of the
EKF and determines whether a hidden neuron should be re-
moved based on the pruning criterion. This results in a compact
RNN. Sequential learning is faster than batch learning in online
applications because it does not require retraining [28]; and
an EKF converges more quickly than a back-propagation (BP)
algorithm in the calculation of the gradient of the cost function
[29]. Therefore, the convergence speed of a sequential GAP-
EKF is higher than that of a dynamic BP algorithm, which is
usually used to train an NN. The selection of the parameters for
the RBF-RNN is discussed in [30].
C. Estimation of Billet Temperature
After being loaded into the reheating furnace, a billet moves
through the preheating, heating, and soaking zones. During this
process, the billet is heated by radiation from the atmosphere
and the walls of the furnace, and loses heat to water-cooled
skid pipes by thermal conduction and convection. A 1-D heat-
transfer model is employed to estimate the temperature distri-
bution and mean temperature of billets (see [5] and [32] for
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009
details) based on the following assumptions about the billet
reheating process.
1) The furnace temperature is a function of time and position
along the length of the furnace.
2) Heat transfer can be ignored between a billet and the
(1) water-cooled skid pipes, and within a billet in the lateral
and lengthwise directions of the furnace.
3) The heat exchange coefficient of the surface of a billet is
constant in each zone.
III. Z ONE -T EMPERATURE O PTIMIZATION AND C ONTROL
PID decoupling is a conventional control method for multi-
variable systems [31]. It requires precise values for the parame-
ters of the plant to carry out satisfactory decoupling. To obtain
good control performance for the combustion process, a zone-
temperature control system is established based on an FNNDC,
for which the structure is determined by fuzzy c-means clus-
tering and the weight parameters are adjusted using an HPSO
algorithm. In addition, HPSO is also used to determine the
optimal zone temperature settings for the furnace.
A. Configuration of Furnace Temperature Control System
The temperature distribution of the furnace is influenced
by the flux and calorific value of the gas, the rolling speed,
the initial billet temperature, periodic changes in the gas flux
caused by the opening and closing of the gate valves, etc.
Furthermore, these factors interact with each other. Due to the
strong nonlinearity of the process, conventional linear control
methods cannot meet practical technical requirements. This
section presents an HPSO-based adaptive FNNDC method that
solves the temperature control problem. The configuration of
the control system is shown in Fig. 2. The output of the system
LIAO et al.: INTEGRATED HYBRID-PSO AND FUZZY-NN DECOUPLING CONTROL 2707

is Tz (k) := [Tp (k), Th (k), Ts (k)]T , and the reference input is

r(k) := [rp (k), rh (k), rs (k)]T .
The control system contains two feedback loops. The outer
FNNDC loop carries out zone temperature decoupling control
to produce appropriate settings for the gas and air fluxes. The
inner PID control loop adjusts those fluxes. It employs PID
control with cross magnitude limiting to guarantee that the
fluxes quickly track given values and are within a reasonable
range. The parameters of the PID controllers are automatically
tuned by the NN modules of the distributed control system; and
note that the control loops for different zones are independent
of each other. Since the time constants of the fluxes are much
smaller than those of the zone temperatures, this two-control-
loop strategy easily provides good zone temperature control.
Note that in the inner PID control loop, an insufficient supply of
air results in incomplete combustion, and leads to air pollution
and reduced thermal efficiency; while excess oxygen increases
the amount of scale. Therefore, it is important to determine the
optimal air–gas ratio L0 under ideal conditions. A gas analyzer
directly shows the minimum amount of air needed. However,
since the gas–air mixture is inhomogeneous, the actual air–gas
ratio L needed to achieve complete combustion of the gas is
usually larger than L0 . It is given by

L = ζL0 (2) Fig. 3. Configuration of FNNDC.

where ζ is an air surplus coefficient with a value in the range adaptation of an NN, we devised an FNNDC to implement
[1.05, 1.20] for an actual production process. zone-temperature control. It adapts to environmental changes
An analysis of actual runs showed that the combustion by means of parameter adjustments made by an HPSO. It em-
process was bounded-input bounded-output (BIBO) stable. Re- ploys an FNN to make expert forward inferences and consists of
stricting the control inputs produced by the FNNDC for the three FNN inference machines (FNNIMs), one for each zone,
three zone temperatures and the PID controllers for the gas and and a defuzzifier with a decoupling function. Since the three
air fluxes within prescribed ranges is a very practical strategy to FNNIMs all have the same structure, we use the one for the
ensure the BIBO stability of the control system. preheating zone as an example, and explain it in detail. It is
described by
B. Decoupling Temperature Control Based on FNN Rpi : IF ep (k) ∈ Aepi and ėp (k) ∈ Aėpi
A heat transfer analysis showed the general direction of heat THEN δup (k) is chosen from Bpi
flow in the furnace to be from the exit toward the entrance i = 1, . . . , mp . (4)
(hotter to cooler); so the temperature of one zone strongly
influences that of the zone(s) before it. We exploit this fact mp denotes the number of fuzzy rules, which is equal to the
to solve the coupling problem by employing a controller with number of hidden neurons. Aepi , Aėpi , and Bpi are the ith fuzzy
the structure in Fig. 3 and by adjusting the weights connecting sets of ep , ėp , and δup , respectively. The hidden layer clusters
the hidden neurons of the heating zone to the output neuron the inputs of the network and employs the following Gaussian
of the preheating zone, and those of the soaking zone to that of function to calculate the activations of the neurons in the first
the heating zone. The inputs of the FNNDC are the vector of layer [33]:
 
the temperature error e(k) := [ep (k), eh (k), es (k)]T , and the φpi (k) = exp − [xp (k) − cpi ]T Δ−2 pi [xp (k) − cpi ] ,
vector of the rate of change in the error ė(k) := [ėp (k), ėh (k),
ės (k)]T . The output is δu(k) := [δup (k), δuh (k), δus (k)]T . i = 1, . . . , mp (5)
The temperature error is given by where xp (k) := [ep (k), ėp (k)]T is the input vector; and the
e(k) = r(k) − Tz (k). (3) vector of cluster centers cpi and the width matrix Δpi are
given by
The decoupling control law extracted from the knowledge    
cepi σepi 0
of experts is simple and static. It can easily be represented cpi = Δpi = (6)
cėpi 0 σėpi
by an FNN. FL is a model-free method that depends on the
experience of experts and heuristic evaluation, but it lacks where cepi and cėpi are the cluster centers of ep and ėp ,
the capabilities of online self-learning and self-adjustment. respectively, and σepi and σėpi are the corresponding widths.
By fusing the knowledge representation of FL with the self- The fuzzy c-means clustering algorithm [34] relies on training

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2708 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009

patterns to determine the cluster centers. Analyzing the clus-
tering results and taking the requirements of simplicity and
precision into account, we determined the numbers of clusters
for the three zones to be mp = 21, mh = 26, and ms = 27.
The width of the corresponding Gaussian function is equal to
the average distance between a cluster center and the training
patterns, and it takes values in the ranges [39, 100] for ep (k)
and [40, 105] for ėp (k).
φpi (k) is the product of the input membership values in
the ith rule of the FNNIM. It indicates the strength of the
ith rule with regard to the inputs. Note that the weights connect-
ing the output and hidden layers wppi (i = 1, . . . , mp ) are the
changes in gas flux corresponding to the ith rule; and whpi (i =
1, . . . , mh ) cancels the influence of the heating zone on the
preheating zone. The output layer defuzzifies a fuzzy inference
by calculating the linearly weighted sum of the outputs of the
hidden neurons
m
p h
m
wppi φpi (k) + whpi φhi (k)
i=1 i=1
δup (k) = m (7)
p mh
φpi (k) + φhi (k)
i=1 i=1
where wppi and whpi are adjusted by the HPSO algorithm
explained below. Note that the call interval of the HPSO is
much longer than the control period of the FNNDC because it is
necessary to optimize the FNNDC only when the performance
deteriorates owing to a change in status, such as a change in
billet type. The performance of the FNNDC is evaluated using
Nr
where k1 , k2 , and k3 (k1 , k2  k3 ) are weighting coefficients;
and ts is the evaluation time for the FNNDC (ts < tr ). The
values of k1 , k2 , and k3 should be selected so that the three
items in (11) have the same order of magnitude.
The optimization problem is to find an optimal temperature
vector r = [rp , rh , rs ]T such that
min Js (r) (12)
subject to the physical constraints
rL ≤ r ≤ rH (13)
and technical constraints, such as
|δTbm | ≤ 30 ◦ C, |δTbsc | ≤ 30 ◦ C. (14)
In (13), rL and rH are the permissible lower and upper
limit vectors, respectively. The optimal temperature vector, r,
is determined by the HPSO algorithm described below.
To reduce the thickness of iron scale on a billet caused by
surface melting and carbon loss during the reheating process,
the surface temperature of the billet should not be very high;
and the furnace temperature cannot exceed the permissible up-
per limit for the fireproof materials. Moreover, the temperature
gradient of a billet must be kept under a certain level; and this
along with the strong interaction between zones necessitates
that the gradient of the furnace temperature in the lengthwise
direction also be under a certain level.

 
2

Jc =
M r(k) − T̂z (k)
(8) IV. HPSO
k=7
We previously used PSO to optimize the weights of the
where M = diag{0.2, 0.3, 0.5} represents the weights for the FNNDC and determine the optimal zone temperature settings;
preheating, heating, and soaking zones; and Nr is the pre- but we found it to be unsatisfactory due to the problems of pop-
scribed number of evaluation steps. In this paper, Nr was set ulation regression, low accuracy, and local minima. Therefore,
to 20. Since we focused on the steady state, we ignored the we developed an HPSO algorithm by incorporating density-
transient response (k = 1, . . . , 6). based selection and clonal expansion into PSO to eliminate
those problems.
C. Optimization of Furnace Temperature
Determining the optimal zone temperature settings is essen- A. PSO
tial to the temperature control of the combustion process. For
a billet at the exit, we let the difference between the mean Based on a metaphor for social behavior, Kennedy and
∗ Eberhart [20] developed PSO as a parallel evolutionary com-
temperature (Tbm ) and the target temperature (Tbm ) be
putation method in 1995. PSO can solve many nonlinear opti-
∗
δTbm := Tbm − Tbm (r) (9) mization problems with a multimode structure. It starts with a
population of random candidates, which are conceptualized as
and the difference between the temperature of the surface (Tbs ) particles. Each particle has two attributes: position and velocity.
and that of the center (Tbc ) be The velocity (speed and direction) of particles is adjusted so
that each particle flies toward a global best based on its own
δTbsc := Tbs (r) − Tbc (r). (10)
experience and the social information of the particle swarm, i.e.,
The following performance index is used to formulate the population. The search procedure, or in other words, the flight
decision problem: of a particle, seeks through the solution space. Let Np be the
population size of the particle swarm; pj (n) be the best position
ts that the jth particle has achieved so far for j = 1, . . . , Np ;
1 2 1 2 1
Js (r) = k1 δTbm (r) + k2 δTbsc (r) + k3 u(r, t) dt. pg (n) be the global best position that the whole population
2 2 2 has achieved so far; and zj (n) and vj (n) be the position
0
(11) and velocity, respectively, of the jth particle at the nth iteration.

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LIAO et al.: INTEGRATED HYBRID-PSO AND FUZZY-NN DECOUPLING CONTROL
Then, zj (n) and vj (n) are adjusted using the following kine-
matics equations:
⎧ neighborhood of pg (n), which is defined to be
⎨ vj (n + 1) = γ(n)vj (n) + α1 ψ1 [pj (n) − zj (n)]
+ α2 ψ2 [pg (n) − zj (n)] (15)
⎩
zj (n + 1) = zj (n) + vj (n + 1)
where γ(n) is an inertial constant, and α1 and α2 are constants
representing a cognitive and a social component, respectively,
that reflect to what degree a particle is directed toward a good
position. The stochastic exploration capability of the particle
swarm is provided by introducing two random constants ψ1
and ψ2 .
Regarding the problem of optimal control, the particle posi-
tion zj (n) consists of the connecting weights of the FNNDC in
Fig. 3 when those weights are being determined; and it consists
of the three zone temperature settings when those settings are
being determined.
The vector vj (n) indicates the velocity of the search for an
optimal solution. During flight, the jth particle is attracted to-
ward the best position, which is determined by its own previous
best position pj (n) and the global best position, pg (n), of the
whole population. The strength of attraction is determined by
two products: α1 times ψ1 and α2 times ψ2 . Without loss of
generality, set
α1 = α2 .
ψ1 and ψ2 are generated in the range (0, 1), with all numbers
having the same probability of being selected. A suitable γ(n)
prevents a particle from changing direction too frequently; and
during the optimization process, it decreases linearly
γmax − γmin
γ(n) = γmax − n (17)
nm
where n is the iteration number, and nm denotes the maximum
number of iterations. γmax and γmin are the maximum and
minimum of γ(n), respectively.
The fitness of the jth particle is given by
1 D(zj )
F (zj ) =
a + J(zj )
where J(zj ) is the performance evaluation function (8) or
(11). a is a small positive number that guarantees that the
denominator is larger than zero. In this paper, the parameters
were chosen to be
 the probability that it will be selected is. In addition, the more
Np ∈ [20, 50], α1 , α2 ∈ [1.6, 2.4]
(19)
γmin = 0.1, γmax = 2.2, a = 0.1.
Even though PSO quickly produces an optimal solution, the
problems of population regression, low accuracy, and local
minima need to be dealt with.
B. HPSO
The drawbacks of PSO can be overcome by incorporating
the density-based selection and clonal expansion [27] of the
immune system approach into PSO. For example, the search
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2709
precision can be improved by applying a clonal operator to the
global best position pg (n). Cloning creates new particles in the
SN (pg (n)) = {z : z − pg (n) ≤ R, z ∈ Ω, R > 0} (20)
where Ω is the space of candidate solutions, and R is the radius
of extension. The selection of R involves a tradeoff: a large
R reduces the convergence speed of the optimization, and a
small R reduces the search precision. Thus, it is important to
choose an appropriate value. In this paper, it was in the range
[0.05, 0.1].
In the evolution stage, particles with a high fitness usually
survive. However, if the density of high-fitness particles is too
high, particles with low fitness but good evolutionary tenden-
cies will be discarded. This reduces the diversity of the popula-
tion, which can lead to local minima. Introducing density-based
selection into PSO suppresses the regressive tendency and the
occurrence of local minima, thus enhancing the global-search
capability. The density of particles in the neighborhood of the
jth one is given by
1
D(zj ) = , j = 1, . . . , N (21)

N
|F (zl ) − F (zj )|
l=1
(16)
where N ≥ Np . N = Np + m1 + m2 is the size of the inter-
mediate population created by performing one step of a PSO,
cloning, and mutation operation. m1 and m2 are the numbers
of particles created by cloning and mutation, respectively. The
choice of m1 is critical because it strongly influences the con-
trol performance. While a larger m1 provides a more accurate
local solution, it also results in lower diversity in the population,
which could lead to a local minimum. In this paper, a suitable
value of m1 was determined from an analysis of the sensitivity
of the performance index to m1 .
The probability that the jth particle will be selected is
√
q
F (zj )
(18) P (zj ) = √ , j = 1, . . . , N. (22)

N q
F (zl )
D(zl )
l=1
the constant q in (22) was selected to maximize
In this paper, √
the range of q F for the given domain of F . It is clear from
(22) that the greater the fitness of the jth particle is, the higher
particles there are that are similar to the jth particle, the less
chance there is that the jth particle will be selected to be one of
the new parents. This gives particles with a low fitness a chance
to evolve.
HPSO, which integrates clonal expansion and density-based
selection with PSO, solves the problems of determining the
optimal weights of the FNNDC and the optimal zone temper-
ature settings for a reheating furnace. It involves the following
steps.
Step 1) Determine the parameters for optimization. Select
the population size Np ; the same value for α1 and
2710
α2 in (15); γmin , γmax , and nm in (17); R in (20);
and q in (22).
Step 2) Set n = 1 and construct the initial population. The
position of a particle is determined as follows.
a) To optimize the zone temperature settings, form
a particle swarm by first using a lookup table and
interpolation to construct a particle that encodes
the zone temperatures, and then creating other
particles zj (n) based on a logistic mapping (see
[35] for details).
b) To optimize the FNNDC weights, place particle
j at a random position based on the follow-
ing rules to accelerate the convergence of the
HPSO. (Note: The preheating zone is used as an
example).
IF cepi > 0 and cėpi ≥ 0
THEN wppi > 0,
IF cepi < 0 and cėpi ≤ 0
THEN wppi < 0,
i = 1, . . . , mp .
The initial velocity, vj (n), is set to zero; and the
previous best position of a particle is set to pj (n) =
zj (n). Note that j = 1, . . . , Np .
Step 3) Determine the global best position pg (n) for the
whole population A(n) by calculating the fitnesses
(18) of all the particles. If the current population
contains an optimal particle, then output the results
and stop; otherwise, go to the next step.
Step 4) Create new particles by the following three
methods.
a) PSO: Produce Np new particles using (15); and
then find their best positions, pj (n) and pg (n),
based on their fitness.
b) Cloning: Create m1 new particles with ran-
dom positions in the neighborhood of pg (n)
[see (20)].
c) Mutation: Create m2 new particles either with
random positions for zone temperature optimiza-
tion, or based on IF-THEN rules [for example,
(23)] for the weights of the FNNDC in the solu-
tion space.
The velocities of the particles produced by cloning
and mutation are set to zero.
Step 5) Select particles on the basis of density. Calculate the
selection probability of the Np + m1 + m2 particles
produced in Step 4); and then select Np particles
from them to form a temporary population, B(n),
based on (22).
Step 6) Renew the particle swarm. Change the position of
the particle with the lowest fitness in B(n) to the
global best position pg (n), set its velocity to zero,
and form the next population, A(n + 1). Then, let
n = n + 1 and go to Step 3).
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009
V. V ERIFICATION AND D ISCUSSION
This section presents the results of simulations on the model-
ing and optimal control of a regenerative pusher-type reheating
furnace and the results of actual runs of the optimization and
control system described above. The furnace was 26.3 m long
and 6.4 m wide, and was divided into three zones (preheating,
heating, and soaking). Gas with a high calorific value from
a coke oven and gas with a low calorific value from a blast
furnace are mixed to form the fuel for the furnace. After being
loaded into the furnace, a billet is propelled through the three
heating zones by a stock pusher and then sent to a mill.
First, real-time GAP-EKF sequential learning was utilized to
train the RBF-RNN to establish a predictive model for zone
temperatures. Moreover, a model for estimating billet tempera-
tures was extracted using an analysis based on the theory of heat
transfer. The effectiveness of the models was verified through
simulations. Then, fuzzy c-means clustering was employed to
extract the cluster centers of the FNNDC; and an HPSO strategy
was used to optimize the connecting weights, and also to search
for the optimal zone temperature settings.
A. Prediction of Zone and Billet Temperatures
(23) 1) Prediction of Zone Temperatures: Training and testing
based on 2000 sets of sampling data from actual furnace
operations yielded an RBF-RNN with seven input neurons,
559 hidden neurons, and three output neurons. Fig. 4 shows
typical results on the predicted temperature of the soaking
zone. The standard deviations of the predicted temperatures
of the preheating, heating, and soaking zones are 29.6 ◦ C,
24.9 ◦ C, and 16.8 ◦ C, respectively. Clearly, this model satisfies
the requirement that the standard deviation must be less than
50 ◦ C.
2) Prediction of Billet Temperatures: The required mean
temperature of billets at the furnace exit, which depends on
the type of billet, was in the range 1130 ◦ C ∼ 1250 ◦ C. The
absolute value of the prediction error in the billet temperature
must be less than 50 ◦ C. Fig. 5 shows typical results on the
predicted and actual temperatures of a billet of Type 45 steel
during the reheating process. The billet was divided into six
layers in the thickness direction. At the furnace entrance, the
billet was at the ambient temperature (20 ◦ C). The maximum
absolute values of the prediction errors for the surface and
center temperatures were 27.8 ◦ C and 29.8 ◦ C, respectively.
They are both less than 50 ◦ C, thereby satisfying the technical
requirements.
B. Optimization of FNNDC System
1) Optimal Weights of FNNDC: The HPSO algorithm
adjusts the weights of the FNNDC in accordance with the
predictive RBF-RNN model. The required precision for tem-
perature control is 100 ◦ C for preheating, 50 ◦ C for heating,
and 30 ◦ C for soaking. Based on these requirements and
the clustering results for the temperature error and its rate
of change obtained from 3000 data sets, repeated adjustment
yielded 21 hidden neurons in the FNNDC (Fig. 3) for the
preheating zone, 26 for the heating zone, and 25 for the soaking
LIAO et al.: INTEGRATED HYBRID-PSO AND FUZZY-NN DECOUPLING CONTROL
Fig. 4. Verification results of predictive model for soaking zone.
Fig. 5. Actual and predicted temperatures of billet during reheating process.
zone. Thus, it resulted in 123 (21 + 2 × (26 + 25)) connecting
weights, which the HPSO algorithm optimized. The weights
are closely related to changes in the gas flux, which has to
be in the range [−3000 m3 /h, 3000 m3 /h]. Considering that
F ∈ [0.0125,√0.02], we chose q in (22) to be four to maximize
the range of q F . The other parameters were
 1.3 GHz; RAM: 240 MB).
α1 = α2 = 2, γmin = 0.1, γmax = 2.2, R = 0.05
Np = 25, m1 = 2, m2 = 2, nm = 30.
(24)
2) Optimal Zone Temperature Settings: For evaluation pur-
poses, a simplex algorithm was also used to optimize the fur-
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2711
Fig. 6. Predicted temperature difference between surface and center of billet
during reheating process obtained by N–M simplex method and by HPSO.
TABLE I
δTbm AND δTbsc OF BILLET AT FURNACE EXIT
nace temperatures [5]. This section compares the performance
of the Nelder–Mead (N–M) simplex algorithm, which is an
improved version, to that of HPSO.
A simplex algorithm constructs a regular simplex in an n-
dimensional space from n + 1 mutually equidistant points in
the space. The search begins with the setting-up of a regular
simplex in a hyperplane of the space and the evaluation of the
objective function at each of the n + 1 vertices. The vertex
for which the objective function has the largest value in a
minimization problem is then replaced by its reflection point
around the centroid of the remaining vertices in the hyperplane,
which results in a new simplex. Nelder and Mead altered
both the size and configuration of the simplex by introducing
an expansion/contraction strategy [36]. Iterating this process
yields an optimal solution. In this paper, the vertices correspond
to candidate particles related to a set of three zone temperatures.
For simulations and analysis, the parameters for √the HPSO
were chosen to be q = 3 to maximize the range of q F for F ∈
[0.04, 0.05], and the other parameters were the same as those in
(24). The expansion and contraction coefficients for the N–M
simplex method were chosen to be 1.2 and 0.8, respectively.
The weighting coefficients in (11) were k1 = k2 = 1, and k3 =
1 × 10−4 .
The target mean temperature of billets at the exit was
1160 ◦ C. Fig. 6 shows some simulation results on the predicted
temperature difference between the surface and center of a billet
during the reheating process obtained by the N–M simplex
method and by HPSO. The δTbm and δTbsc of a billet at the exit
are listed in Table I. For HPSO, the values are only 0.01% and
35.29%, respectively, of those obtained by the N–M simplex
method, which means that HPSO is clearly superior. It is also
worth mentioning that the processing time for HPSO was only
0.26 min/generation (CPU: Intel (R) Celeron (R) M Processor,
3) Comparison of Performance of HPSO and Other Opti-
mization Methods: Table II shows some statistics on HPSO and
other methods for the same performance index (11). Ten trials
were carried out for each method; the table lists the averages
of the values obtained. The target mean temperature of a billet
2712 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009

TABLE II
COMPARISON OF PERFORMANCE INDEX (11) FOR HPSO AND OTHER
METHODS OF OPTIMIZING ZONE-TEMPERATURE SETTINGS

Fig. 7. Evolution curves for HPSO and PSO.

Fig. 8. Sensitivity of HPSO to clonal expansion parameter m1 .

was 1160 ◦ C. The population size was 25, and the maximum
number of generations was 30. Regarding the coefficients for
the various methods, those in the previous section were used
for the N–M simplex method; the crossover and mutation rates
were 0.8 and 0.08 for GA; those in (24) were used for HPSO
and PSO; and q = 3 in (22) was used for HPSO. The GA
used real-coded individuals, the roulette wheel operator for
selection, and a single crossover [33]. It employed the same
methods to create an initial population and carry out mutations
as those used in PSO and HPSO. Clearly, GA is better than
N–M simplex; PSO is superior to GA; and HPSO is superior to
PSO. For nm = 100, Fig. 7 shows that HPSO provides higher
search accuracy because it overcomes the regression problem.

C. Sensitivity Analysis of HPSO

The relationships between the performance index (11) and
the parameters of the HPSO were investigated through simula-
tions. As expected, increasing the population size Np improves
the performance; but the rate of improvement drops appreciably
when Np is larger than 25. An interesting point is that the
relationship between the performance index and the number
of clones m1 is not monotonic. Fig. 8 shows an example of
the relationship for the parameters in (24). Roughly speaking,
the performance index is low when 2 ≤ m1 ≤ 5 and high else- Fig. 9. Results of actual runs of HPSO-based zone-temperature FNNDC
where. This can be explained as follows: The search precision system installed in regenerative pusher-type reheating furnace.

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LIAO et al.: INTEGRATED HYBRID-PSO AND FUZZY-NN DECOUPLING CONTROL
is low when m1 is small, and the diversity of the population
decreases as m1 increases.
D. Run Results
Fig. 9 shows some typical results of actual runs of the zone-
temperature FNNDC system, which was implemented in a
regenerative pusher-type reheating furnace. In each zone, the
gas flux fluctuates periodically due to the switching of the
regenerative burners between burning and venting, which is
needed to keep the temperature within a zone laterally uniform.
This causes temperature fluctuations in the zones. It was found
that our control and optimization method for the combustion
process not only lightened the operators’ work load but also
improved system performance: Fuel consumption was 12%
lower than for conventional manual control. Thus, the method
provides significant economic benefits.
VI. C ONCLUSION
A regenerative pusher-type reheating furnace is character-
ized by strong coupling among zones, large inertia, strong
nonlinearity, and uncertainties. Moreover, the switching of the
regenerative burners between burning and venting increases
the difficulty of controlling zone temperatures. To solve the
control problem, this paper presented an integrated method of
intelligent decoupling control that combines an FNNDC with
an HPSO scheme. It has the following features.
1) A model employing an RBF-RNN was built to predict
furnace temperatures, and a model was established to
estimate billet temperatures based on the theory of heat
transfer for the optimization of the FNNDC and the zone-
temperature settings.
2) An FNNDC was employed to control the zone temper-
atures, a fuzzy c-means clustering method was used to
determine the architecture of the FNNDC, and the HPSO
algorithm was used to optimize the parameters of the
FNNDC and the zone-temperature settings.
After verifying the method through simulations based on data
from actual furnace operations, this method was implemented
in a regenerative pusher-type reheating furnace in a steel mill.
Data from actual runs showed that, compared to manual control,
this control method saved a great deal of fuel, yielded large
economic benefits, and improved the quality of steel products
by reducing the temperature gradient within a billet and the
error between the mean and target temperatures of a billet
at the furnace exit. This paper shows that the integration of
intelligent control methods is a useful way of dealing with
difficult, previously unsolvable control problems.
The combustion process is BIBO stable. Practical strategies,
such as restricting the control inputs to specific ranges, were
employed to ensure the BIBO stability of the control system.
However, investigation of the stability of the whole control
system is theoretically meaningful, and will be carried out in
the future. Furthermore, since a recurrent FNN can be used
to implement a complicated control law, it is now receiving a
great deal of attention in process control (e.g., [17]). Exploring
its use for the temperature control of a reheating furnace and
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2713
comparing it with an FNNDC is of great significance, and will
be carried out in the future.
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Ying-Xin Liao received the M.S. degree in engi-
neering from Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China,
in 1992, and the Ph.D. degree in engineering from
Central South University, Changsha, China, in 2006.
Since 1994, she has been with the School of Elec-
tronic and Information Engineering, Central South
University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha,
where she is currently a Full Professor. She was a
Visiting Scholar with the Department of Computa-
tional Intelligence and System Science, Interdiscipli-
nary Graduate School of Science and Engineering,
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan, from August to December in
2004. Her current research interests are in intelligent control and its applications
to industrial process.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 56, NO. 7, JULY 2009
Jin-Hua She (A’94–M’99–SM’08) received the B.S.
degree in engineering from Central South Univer-
sity, Changsha, China, in 1983, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in engineering from the Tokyo Insti-
tute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 1990 and 1993,
respectively.
In 1993, he was with the Department of Mecha-
tronics, School of Engineering, Tokyo University of
Technology, Tokyo, and in April 2008, he transferred
to the University’s School of Computer Science,
where he is currently an Associate Professor. His
current research interests include the application of control theory, repetitive
control, process control, Internet-based engineering education, and robotics.
Dr. She is a member of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers, the
Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, and the Japan Society of Mechanical
Engineers. He received the IFAC control engineering practice paper prize in
1999 (jointly with M. Wu and M. Nakano).
Min Wu (SM’08) received the B.S. and M.S. de-
grees in engineering from Central South University,
Changsha, China, in 1983 and 1986, respectively,
and the Ph.D. degree in engineering from Tokyo
Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 1999.
In July 1986, he was with the staff of Central
South University, where he is currently a Professor
of automatic control engineering. He was a Visiting
Scholar with the Department of Electrical Engineer-
ing, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, from 1989 to
1990, a Visiting Research Scholar with the Depart-
ment of Control and Systems Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, from
1996 to 1999, and a Visiting Professor with the School of Mechanical, Mate-
rials, Manufacturing Engineering and Management, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, U.K., from 2001 to 2002. His current research interests are robust
control and its application, process control, and intelligent control.
Dr. Wu is a member of the Nonferrous Metals Society of China and the
Chinese Association of Automation. He received the IFAC control engineering
practice paper prize in 1999 (jointly with M. Nakano and J.-H. She).