Modeling and Validation of a Four‐Tank System for Level Control Process Using Black Box and White Box Model Approaches

Abstract

Mathematical modeling of a system plays a vital role in controller design, tuning to meet the desired specifications and process parameter optimization. In this paper, different identification algorithms are implemented in the four‐tank system to demonstrate the superiority of the recommended subspace system identification method (Numeric Algorithms for Subspace State Space System Identification [N4SID]) for the different input design. A system identification method was utilized to identify the model of a dynamic system. It is modeled using the First‐Principle Method (FPM), Prediction Error Method (PEM) and Numeric Algorithms for N4SID method. The identification is performed through MATLAB. The plant input and output is acquired through LabVIEW. The developed models are validated with a new dataset based on the model performance specifications: Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and Best Fit Rate (BFR). The results show that the proposed N4SID method with the amplitude‐modulated pseudorandom binary signal (APRBS) signal is better than the other methods with different inputs. © 2020 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.