Adaptive soft sensors using local partial least squares with moving window approach

Abstract

ABSTRACTDeveloping soft sensors for an industrial process, the colinearity of the predictor variables and the time‐varying nature of the process need to be concerned. In many industrial applications, the partial least square (PLS) has been proven to be able to capture the linear relationship between input and output variables for a local operating region; therefore, the PLS model needs to be adapted to accommodate the time‐varying nature of the process. In this paper, a fast‐moving window algorithm is derived to update the PLS model. The proposed approach adapted the parameters of the inferential model with the dissimilarities between the new and oldest data and incorporated them into the kernel algorithm for the PLS. The computational loading of the model adaptation was therefore independent of the window size. Because a moving window approach is sensitive to outliers, the confidence intervals for the primary variables were created on the basis of the prediction uncertainty. The inferential model would not be misled by the outliers from the online analyzers, whereas the model could be updated during the transition stage. An industrial example, predicting oxygen concentrations in the air separation process, demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach for the process industry. Copyright © 2012 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.