Current Problems .
in Process Control
Introduction
The term “process control” generally per-
tains to manufacturing processes where ma-
terials undergo chemical or physical trans-
formations. The process industries have
historically recognized the importance of
process control in order to have a success-
fully functioning manufacturing facility. The
preferred control strategy in most process
control applications is to implement single-
loop PID (proportional-integtal-derivative)
controllers. However, there are a number of
features of manufacturing process, shown in
Table 1, that are not explicitly treated by
PID controllers. Many developments of
modem control theory have been designed
to deal with these characteristics, but the
process industries have been quite reluctant
to apply such tools. This fact has led many
observers to state that there is a “gap” be-
tween control theory and practice.
Table 2 presents a summary of process
control research and development trends in
academia as well as in industry spanning the
period 1940-1980. The double arrows indi-
cate that only a few areas were pursued
jointly by both sectors. In most cases, the
academic contributions occurred 20 years
ahead of the attempts at industrial imple-
mentation. Even today, 1940’s technology is
used heavily in industrial control practice
(e.g., Ziegler-Nichols tuning of feedback
controllers). Probably the most innovative
industrial developments during the 40-year
period have been in the 1970s, namely dis-
tributed computer control and energy man-
agement. The lack of coordination between
academic and industrial research indicated in
Table 2 has a number of mot causes, which
are discussed subsequently.
Thereis a need to obtain a quick and
clearly economic solution to plant control
problems. The maxim that 90 percent of the
profits can result from 10-20 percent of the
effort has been a guideline of plant man-
agers. In fact, the great majority of control
loops in a plant operate successfully with
simple single-loop PI controllers. Once a
plant can be made to produce a satisfactory
Presented at Santa Clara Workshop, Santa Clara
University, Santa Clara, California, September
18-19, 1986. Professor Thomas F. Edgar is with
theDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Uni-
versity of Texas, Austin, TX 78712-1084.
April 1987
Thomas F. Edgar
product, any efforts to change or optimize
the plant operating conditions are met with
suspicion. A Murphy’s Law mentality is at
work here (“What can go wrong, will go
wrong”); too many tests of advanced control
have had mixed success. The economic lim-
itation also prevents the development of in-
novative control and engineering tools by
computer control vendors; most vendors as-
sume a “defensive” position, only adding
new algorithms after some competitor does
it. For example, no major vendor currently
offers a Kalman filter as a standard feature.
Recently, however, self-tuning controllers
have become available, and it appears that
most vendors will include some version of
adaptive control in their future products.
Industry is not likely to implement theo-
retical concepts without a great deal of actual
evidence that the new methods will be suc-
cessful (operationally and economically) in
a realistic plant environment. A number of
university research groups have worked at
the “housebreaking” of modem control
techniques. Because there are very few pilot-
scale installations where publishable control
studies can be carried out, a limited experi-
Table 2
R&D Trends in Process Control (1940-1980)
Academic
1940s Decade
Measurement/Controller Hardware --*
Controller Tuning (PID) --f
Process Identification
1950s Decade
Process Identification --*
Stability Analysis
Feedforward Control
1960s Decade
Optimal Control/Estimation
Multivariable Control
Adaptive Control
Distributed Parameter Systems
1970s Decade
Multivariable Control --t
Adaptive Control
Optimal ControUEstimation
Large-Scale Systems
Computer-Aided Design
Real-Time Computing
0272-1708/87/0400-0013 $01.OO 0 1987 IEEE
Table 1
Process Characteristics
That Must Be Treated by Control
(11 Time Delays
( 2 ) Nonminimum Phase
(3) Disturbances
(4) Unmeasured Variables
(5) Noise
(6) Time-Varying Parameters
(7) Nonlinearities
(8) Constraints
(9) Multivariable Interactions
ence base exists. The fact that corporate re-
search and development funds would be re-
quired to perform in-house testing is a major
impediment for a company to determine what
is “useful” theory and that which is useless.
In the process industries, there is a great
variety of equipment employed; very little
replication of process configurations (or plant
control strategies) exists. This means that
every application must be analyzed individ-
ually. This should be contrasted to the aero-
space industry, where hundreds of the same
Ind
+ MeasurementKontrolIer Hardware
+ Controller Tuning
(PID)
+ Process Identification
Cascade/Ratio Control
Feedforward Control
Digital Computer Control
+ Multivariable Control
Distributed Computer Control
Energy Management
Feedforward Control
Advanced Control
13
aircraft are manufactured. In addition, the
proprietary nature of the chemical industry
means that company representatives are un-
willing to discuss control problems since this
may divulge competitive information.
Another impediment to adaption of new
control concepts is the shortage of trained
personnel who have an appreciation of con-
trol theory and can implement modem con-
trol concepts. The narrow-mindedness of in-
dustry in recognizing the potential value of
modem control theory is somewhat dismay-
ing. One paper recently presented begins,
“The author has been reading the chemical
process control literature for over 25 years
and, in his opinion, the vast majority of pa-
pers contained little or no material useful in
the daily practice of control engineering.”
Fortunately, the paper goes on to describe
the author’s efforts in developing a self-tun-
ing controller; so the statement should not
be interpreted so negatively. The preceding
quote is more a criticism of the recent control
theory literature rather than control theory
itself.
In defense of industry‘s point of view,
successful implementation of control con-
cepts requires different kinds of skills rather
than theoretical development. To treat im-
plementation as a casual exercise is sopho-
moric at best. It appears that very few people
are interested in or capable of working over
a wide spectrum of theory and applications.
One of the main criticisms of modem control
theoreticians is that they make incorrect as-
sumptions, which do not reflect the process
realities; the lack of communication between
theoreticians and applications engineers is
largely responsible for the so-called gap be-
tween theory and practice. The applications
engineer does not usually have the back-
ground, orientation, or interest to make the
necessary mathematical extensions and cus-
tomize the theory for the problem to be
solved. That situation will never change. It
may be easier to educate the theoreticians.
In a sense, process control researchers have
failed in the task to communicate important
results that could be used in applications.
Future Needs
Having painted a rather dismal view of the
potential commercial value of previous pro-
cess control research, it is encouraging to
note that the 1980s appears to hold more
promise for development of theory that can
be implemented in the process industries.
The availability of inexpensive computer
hardware is one of the majorreasons for this.
Moreover, the increased emphasis on pro-
ductivity and efficiency as well as maintain-
14
Table 3
R&D Trends in Process Control (1980-1990)
Academic
Sensor Development --f
Digital Computer Control + +
Predictive Control +
Adaptive (Robust) Control + +
AI/Fault Detection/Reliability -+
Multivariable (Robust) Control + +
Optimal Control/Estimation --f
Concurrent Computation
Nonlinear Control
Large-Scale Systems
ing a competitive industrial position in man-
ufacturing has caused industry to be more
receptive to advanced control concepts. Ta-
ble 3 shows that during this decade, both
academic and industrial sectors are pursuing
more research areas in common (although to
varying degrees) than occurred in earlier eras
(see Table 2 ) . These research areas represent
subjects that would benefit from interdisci-
plinary research work; short descriptions of
each area are presented subsequently.
Sensor Development
While actual sensor development falls
more in the purview of chemists and physi-
cists, some combination of hardware and
software may be the most economical ap-
proach. In other words. the cost of measur-
ing every process variable is usually prohib-
itive. Smart sensors that are self-calibrating
and self-checking (for failure) are a high
priority. In the process industries, there are
special needs for improved multiphase flow
measurement, noninvasive analysis of chem-
ical composition and physical properties, and
sensors operating in harsh environments
(e.g., high temperature and pressure). Pro-
cess control systems that use imagery or ‘*vi-
sion” feedback present many challenges in
the development of appropriate control al-
gorithms.
Predictive Control
One of the classes of control algorithms
that seems to be receiving a great deal of
interest in the process control community is
predictive control. Predictive or “model-
based” control involves a different type of
feedback control structure involving the
model error, andit has several advantages
over the conventional feedback control
structure. Several types of multivariable pre-
dictive controllers based on nonlinear pro-
gramming has been implemented by industry
(e.g.. Dynamic Matrix Control at Shell Oil).
+ Sensor Development
Digital Computer Control
+ Predictive Control
Adaptive (Robust) Control
+ AIlFault DetectiodReliability
Multivariable (Robust) Control
+ Optimal ControUEstimation
Human Factors
Energy Management
Integrated Management
Information and Control System
Other popular predictive control algorithms
include internal model control and inferential
control. Since virtually all research and de-
velopment on predictive control has thus far
been carried out by chemical engineers, there
needs to be additional theoretical develop-
ment and evaluation of model-based control
for thewide variety of processes encountered
in electrical and electronics engineering, es-
pecially for multivariable and nonlinear sys-
tems.
Adaptive Control
As an alternative to controllers that com-
pensate for large modeling errors, it is de-
sirable to develop adaptive control algo-
rithms that can be adjusted according to
process characteristics. Adaptive controllers
are inherently insensitive to modeling e m r s
and provide a higher level of performance.
Since 1960, the development of adaptive
control theory has progressed from heuristic
engineering approaches to more formal
mathematical studies. The most recent re-
search promises to reconcile the two ap-
proaches in order to produce successful con-
trol algorithms. Existing adaptive control
algorithms can be made to work for specific
problems, but they do not work consistently
well on a wide range of problems. Heuristic
engineering schemes have proved unstable in
some applications (or at least require occa-
sional resets), and formal mathematical
schemes, while globally stable underthe
stated assumptions, can become unstable
when those assumptions are violated even in
seemingly innocent ways. Thislatter phe-
nomenon has caused a great deal of contro-
versy in the adaptive control community over
the last several years. Adding robusmess
theory (see “Multivariable and Robust Con-
trol” subsection) may lead to consistent and
reliable algorithms operating over a wide
range of conditions. but this requires further
research and testing.
IEEE Control Systems Mogozine
 Fault Detection/Expert
Systems
The success of a manual strategy for han-
dling abnormal conditions in a manufactur-
ing facility due to equipment malfunctions
or human error relies very heavily on the
operator being able to respond correctly to
process alarms. However, the operator's re-
sponse depends on many factors: the number
of alarms and the frequency of occurrence
of abnormal conditions, the man-machine
interface and how information is presented
to the operator, the complexity of the plant,
and the operator's intelligence, training, ex-
perience, and reaction to stress. Because of
the many factors involved in determining the
appropriate response to an alarm situation,
computational aids for the operator are cru-
cial to the success of operating complex
manufacturing plants. Such computational
aids may be developed as software systems
(expert systems or artificial intelligence) and
can be used in fault detection and diagnosis.
A fault detection system should respond rap-
idly when a fault or malfunction occurs. On
the other hand, the system can then become
too sensitive to noise, and consequently gen-
erate too many false alarms. However, it is
more reasonable to tolerate false alarms in a
highly redundant system configuration than
in a system without substantial backup ca-
pabilities. By examining specific forms of
process behavior that are characteristic of
certain faults or malfunctions, one should be
able to reduce the fraction of false alarms as
well as any missed faults by making simul-
taneous multiple measurements. Questions
such as what are good on-line diagnostic
procedures and how can they be imple-
mented economically in practice, under what
circumstances can the causes of faults be in-
cluded in the mathematical models of the
instruments, and what properties of system
structure and behavior are conducive to on-
line diagnosability , still remain unanswered.
Multivariable and Robust Control
Many linear systems are difficult to control
because they contain many measurements,
controlled variables, and significant model-
ing errors. Substantial research p r o p s has
occurred recently in the field of multivariable
and robust control. Singular values have been
found to be the correct multivariable gener-
alizations of the classical single-input single-
output Bode gain functions, and structured
and unstructured singular values can be used
as measures of stability robustness of mul-
tivariable feedback loops (Le., how much
modeling error can betolerated before insta-
bility occurs or performance specifications
are violated). In addition, singular values can
April 1987
be employed in classical frequency-domain
interpretations of themodem linearquad-
ratic-Gaussian (LQG) design methodology.
The introduction of H, optimization as an
alternate synthesis formalism to the existing
H,-based LQG methodology also promises
a complete design methodology, perhaps
based on the mamage of structured singular
values axd H, optimization, with the power
to produce control algorithms with pre-
scribed performance and robustness proper-
ties for large multivariable processes.
High Performance and Concurrent
. tools, for both procedures.
Computation
Large-Scale
Many proposed algorithmic approaches
have been rejected in the past because they
were too computationally intensive. As com-
puter speed has improved, it is important to
reevaluate such approaches once more. For
example, the real-time computation of con-
trollers for nonlinear processes has been con-
sidered infeasible until recently. Advanced
nonlinear programming algorithms can now
be implemented in reasonable computation
times. Another possible area that may de-
serve further study is in distributed param-
eter processes; some of the emerging bio-
technological processes that require popu-
lation balance equations may be good can-
didates forapplying such algorithms. Ad-
vances in parallel processing machines
should also have some impact on the design
of control systems constrained by a heavy
computational effort on a very short process
response time. An example might be a com-
plicated simulation of combined fluid flow,
heat transfer, and mass transfer, such as
would occur in coating of various polymeric
or metallic films or in crystal growth. In this
application, sets of partial differential equa-
tions, often of a boundary-value nature, must
be integrated to determine appropriate con-
trol actions. Very little research has been
carried out on this topic, but it is one that
should be very important in the next decade.
Nonlinear Control
Nonlinear behavior is a feature exhibited
by many chemical processes. The normal
design procedure uses linearization of the
process model followed by application of
linear control methodology. However,
this procedure yields unsatisfactory perfor-
mance, especially when excursions from the
steady-state operating point are large. Recent
theoretical work inseveral areas of nonlinear
dynamic systems promises to change this
process dramatically. One approach provides
general mathematical tools to analyze sys-
tems whose nonlinearities can be contained
within sets with linear boundaries. A static
curve bounded by straight lines is a simple
example of such a nonlinearity. The second
approach for nonlinear systems deals with
the class of systems that is linearizable (ex-
actly or approximately) via feedback. These
systems allow control laws that reduce their
closed-loop properties to the properties of
linear loops. Hence, they make classical tools
and criteria available for design. Further re-
search is needed to develop performance and
robustness properties and evolve a practical
design methodology, with associated CAD
Systems
Interconnected networks of very large di-
mension characterize a great number of man-
ufacturing systems. They consist of many
elements, often similar, interacting inan
either equal or subordinated way, and which
are influenced by a hierarchy of computers-
macro, mini, and micro. Existing process
control practice only attempts to deal with
the simplest subproblems. Rarely does one
attempt to treat the control of an entire large,
coordinated system, or guide the restoration
of a failed system. Clearly, there is a need
to develop a truly large system theory for
manufacturing processes as well as other ap-
plications. Some of the problems in devel-
oping a large-scale systems theory include
representation of variables and equations
(where state variables are not definable and
system changes are not governed by differ-
ential equations), development of practicable
control algorithms, and exploitation of sys-
tem stmcture for control computation (hier-
archies, networks, decentralization, etc.).
Conclusions
During the next decade, there is a good
opportunity to develop new theoretical con-
tributions in control theory that could impact
industrial control practice. Research and de-
velopment on the subjects of new sensors,
predictive control, adaptive control,expert
systems and fault detection, robust multi-
variable control, optimal control, concurrent
computation, nonlinear system control, and
large-scale systems appears to be most
promising. Theoretical research investiga-
tions should carefully analyze implementa-
tion requirements andthe relationship of
proposed algorithms to a realistic plant en-
vironment in order to be of benefit to prac-
titioners. More involvement in realistic and
complex applications by theoreticians should
give them more insight into new theory that
should be developed. This suggests that in-
terdisciplinary approaches on a wide variety
of control applications should be fruitful.
15