Adaptive controllers continuously evaluate and adapt to regulate industrial processes, such as maintaining cooking temperature. There are two types of setpoint control, on-off and throttling, with PID being the most common algorithm. Adaptive control is used in aviation, industrial process control, and transportation, including cruise control. Predictive variability adaptive controllers are pre-programmed to change PID tuning with a known variable. Adaptive controllers help systems cope with variability.
An adaptive controller is one that continuously evaluates its performance in regulating industrial processes to achieve specific goals and adapts to better achieve these goals. An example would be a commercial food cooking process where maintaining an accurate cooking temperature is essential to consistently produce a high quality product. The variability of the product being processed, or of the processing plant itself, nullifies this consistency. This variability can be expected or unexpected. Adaptive control systems have been developed to address one or both types.
There are two groups of setpoint control, where the setpoint, or desired operating value, and the process variable, the actual value, are compared, resulting in an exit decision. The first is the traditional on-off control like that used in home thermostats, where the heating is either on or off. The second type is throttling control, the same type used to control the speed of an automobile by applying proportionally more or less power through the throttle. Proportional-integral-derivative (PID) or tri-mode control is the most common algorithm used by process controllers to perform the action of limiting control. In short, a PID controller provides immediate, long-term, and preemptive intervention to manipulate a control actuator, such as a motor throttle, to make the process variable equal to the desired setpoint and keep it there.
While the first adaptive control strategies were developed for aviation autopilot systems and early spacecraft, the most prolific uses of adaptive control have been in the realm of industrial process control and transportation. With the widespread use of microcomputers, adaptive control has also found its way into everyday consumer-oriented systems. Automotive cruise control is one example.
Cruise controls increase PID throttling with adaptive control tuning adjustments. If a driver sets cruise control for 60 mph (96.5 km/h), the system continuously senses actual speed, compares it to the 60 mph (96.5 km/h) setpoint and modulates the throttle to maintain speed. This system is designed to operate consistently on level ground.
If the same car was towing a trailer, going up a steep incline or in a strong headwind, the PID model would require more aggressive tuning to enable it to still deliver the same responsiveness to changing conditions while maintaining constant actual cruising speed. The adaptive section of the controller will sense the change in responsiveness and adjust the PID regulation aggressively to keep the speed constant. This is not expected, as the regulation is based solely on system responsiveness.
A predictive variability adaptive controller is pre-programmed to change its PID tuning with a known variable. For example, this type of adaptive controller might be used in a heating control over an industrial process that normally and predictably becomes exothermic at one point during its execution. Adaptive controllers help industrial, transportation and consumer systems cope with variability in all its forms.
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