Multivariable gain-scheduled fuzzy logic control of an exothermic reactor

Abstract

Fuzzy logic control frequently exhibits superior performance to classical linear controllers even for ‘hard’, mathematically well defined plants, as described in this paper. The case-study of a highly nonlinear exothermic continuous stirred tank reactor, which poses a multivariable control problem with two interacting loops and open-loop instability, is used. The behaviour of the fuzzy logic controller is compared with that of a PID controller. A smooth, easily tuneable gain-schedule is designed to handle offset-like problems with a fuzzy controller. It is analytically shown that such a gain-schedule is the simpler, intuitive equivalent of a manipulation of the corresponding fuzzy membership functions. The fuzzy controller structure chosen is a parsimonious one, with the choice of Gaussian bell-shaped membership functions generating a smooth input/output surface with nontrivial inferencing spanning the entire input space. This provides a clear, non-heuristic reason to select Gaussian over triangular shapes for membership functions. The gain-scheduled fuzzy controller shows excellent control performance, significantly outperforming the PID controllers in both servo and regulatory modes. The disturbance rejection behaviour of the modified fuzzy controller is observed to be particularly good.