Development of Basic Process Control Structures

Abstract

This paper treats development and research at the regulatory control layer in process control. It is noticed that very little attention is payed to this subject, with the exception PID controller tuning. The reason for this is discussed. Two examples of recent advances in the field treating feedforward control and ratio control, respectively, are presented. A goal of the paper is to point out the need for further research in the area. One reason for this is the great industrial impact such research may have, since the functions appearing in this layer are used at so many places in so many industries. A second reason is the need for well functioning regulatory control layers to form solid foundations for the advanced process control layers.