IEEE International Conference on Power, Control, Signals and Instrumentation Engineering (ICPCSI-2017)
Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC)
Implementation for an Industrial Pilot
Stirrer Process
AJITH.B.SINGH 1 ANIE SELVA JOTHI.A2
ajith.b.singh@gmail.com anieece03@gmail.com
1, 3 – Faculty in the Department of ICE, Sri Krishna College Of Technology, Coimbatore.
2 – Faculty in the Department of ECE, Sri Krishna College Of Engineering & Technology, Coimbatore
Abstract- Modeling of flow process in various tanks
and vessels is one of the most common problems in
the process industry. In this paper adaptive control is
implemented for the CSTR process. The CSTR
process is a classic example of a highly nonlinear
system. Inflow rate is taken as the input data and
process level is taken as the output for CSTR. The
input flow is measured using a turbine flow meter
while the output level is measured using a differential
pressure transmitter (DPT). The mathematical model
of the CSTR process is identified in the laboratory
conditions using MATLAB simulations and this
model is used for implementing in adaptive control in
the simulation environment. Here Model Reference
Adaptive Control (MRAC) is implemented for the
given transfer function of the CSTR process and is
being compared with conventional PID and auto
tuning PID controllers. In future further adaptive
controllers can be implemented for the same process
along with the consideration of further nonlinearities
which would be more helpful in optimization of the
CSTR process.
Keywords: Process control; nonlinear dynamics;
nonlinear process control; model reference adaptive
control, comparative analysis with conventional
control.
I. INTRODUCTION.
The basic control problem is to regulate the
liquid level in one tank by varying the speed of
the circulating pump. The apparatus consist of
two separate glass tanks, inter connected by a
flow channel, both with drain valves to common
reservoir situated below. A variable area valve in
this Channel is used to vary the flow
characteristics between the tanks. A speed pump
is set to fill the left tank either in manual or
automatic control performance was monitored.
Alternatively the second tank can be filled from
the first tank, via varying different positions of
978-1-5386-0814-2/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
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JANANISRI.S3
srii_janani@yahoo.co.in
the valve, and again performance characteristics
determined. The water level in each tank is
clearly visible through the transparent glass.
System identification involves building
mathematical models of a dynamic system based
on a set of measured stimulus and response data
samples. You can use system identification in a
wide range of applications, including mechanical
engineering, biology, physiology, meteorology,
economics, and model-based control design. For
example, engineers use a system model of the
relationship between the fuel flow and the shaft
speed of turbojet engine to optimize the
efficiency and operational stability of the jet
engine. Biologists and physiologists use system
identification techniques in areas such as eye
pupil response and heart rate control.
Meteorologists and economists build
mathematical models based on historical data for
use in forecasting. Here we focus on the transfer
function model design of the CSTR process.
II. PROCESS DESCRIPTION.
The continuous-flow, well-stirred tank reactor
finds wide application in the chemical industry
from pilot plant to full-scale production
operation. The basic arrangement, sketched
below, comprises a tank thermostated at some
surrounding temperature Ta into which one or
more reactant feed streams flow at some
controlled rate. The contents react in the tank and
are stirred either mechanically or as a
consequence of the flow characteristics, and there
is an outflow. The continuous inflow of fresh
reactants (and matching volumetric outflow of
reactant and-product mixture) provides a
thermodynamically open system, in which true
 IEEE International Conference on Power, Control, Signals and Instrumentation Engineering (ICPCSI-2017)
steady state behavior can be sustained
'indefinitely'.
The various control parameters include:
ƒ the inflow concentrations ci,0 of the
different reactants;
ƒ the total volumetric flow rate v through the
reactor;
ƒ the ambient temperature or the
temperature of any cooling jacket Ta
ƒ the inflow temperature T0 (which may be
different from Ta)
Whilst other features, such as reactor shape and
size might be of interest at the design stage.
The diagram of the CSTR process is shown in
Figure 1.
Fig. 1.CSTR process
A continuous stirred tank reactor with a
non isothermal reaction is considered. The tank has
internal heating coil with heat input Q (kJ/min) and
the temperature is controlled by a controller in the
closed loop feedback circuit. The flow rates of the
fluids are constant. In this paper, the controlled
variable is the level of the fluid and the
manipulated variable is the heating coil Q.
Energy balance Equations.
The CSTR system is modeled using basic
accounting and energy conservation principles
Rate of material accumulation = rate of material in –
rate of material out
dVȡ/dt =Finȡ-Foutȡ
A dh/dt = Fi - Fo
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Energy balance
VȡCpdT/dt = FȡCp(Ti-T) + UA(Q- T)
III. PROCESS IDENTIFICATION
A type of reactor used commonly in industrial
processing is the stirred tank operated continuously.
It is referred to as the continuous-stirredtank reactor
(CSTR). The basic arrangement of CSTR is
sketched in Fig. 3.2.
Fig. 2.Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor
Where,
Ti ĺ Inlet Temperature of feed reactant (K)
T0 ĺOutlet temperature of reactor (K)
T ĺ Temperature in the reactor (K)
V ĺ Volume of the tank (m3)
ȡ ĺ Density of the fluid (kg/m3)
CP ĺ Heat capacity of the tank (J/kgK)
A continuous stirred tank reactor with a non
isothermal reaction A+B ĺProducts and with first
order rate equation ((-rA) = kCA) is considered. The
basic arrangement, sketched above, comprises a
tank has external heating coil with heat input Q
(kJ/min) into which one reactant feed streams flow
at constant flow rate (F). The contents react in the
tank and are stirred either mechanically or as a
consequence of the flow characteristics, and there
is a constant out flow rate (F).
IV. ADAPTIVE CONTROL
Adaptive Control is the control method used
by a controller which must adapt to a controlled
system with parameters which vary, or are initially
uncertain. For example, as an aircraft flies, its mass
will slowly decrease as a result of fuel
consumption; a control law is needed that adapts
itself to such changing conditions. Adaptive control
 IEEE International Conference on Power, Control, Signals and Instrumentation Engineering (ICPCSI-2017)
is different from robust control in that it does not
need a priori information about the bounds on these
uncertain or time-varying parameters; robust
control guarantees that if the changes are within
given bounds the control law need not be changed,
while adaptive control is concerned with control
law changing themselves.
Adaptation Law
The adaptation law attempts to find a set
of parameters that minimize the error between the
plant and the model outputs. To do this, the
parameters of the controller are incrementally
adjusted until the error has reduced to zero. A
number of adaptation laws have been developed to
date. The two main types are the gradient and the
Lyapunov approach and here gradient approach
method is used.
This control system consists of a reference
model, an adjustment mechanism and a controller.
The reference model describes the desired
input/output dynamics of the closed loop. The
controller derives the control signal (U) so that the
plant’s closed-loop characteristics from the
command signal (UC) to the plant output (Y) is the
same as the dynamics of the reference model. The
convergence of the modeling error to zero for any
given UC is assured when Y exactly follows the
output of the model (YM).
The modeling error e is given by equation (1):
e= Y-YM ….(1)
The controller parameters are adjusted with the loss
function J (ș):
J (ș) =(1/2) e2 …. (2)
To minimize J, the parameters can be changed in
the direction of negative gradient of J. The rate of
change of controller parameters (ș) with respect to
time is defined by equation (3) where the
adaptation gain is defined by Ȗ:
dș/dt = - Ȗ dJ = - Ȗe ˜e/dș ….(3)
The following parameter adjustment mechanism,
called MIT algorithm and represented as in
equation (4), is used to control the interactive
thermal system:
dș / dt = - Ȗe ˜e/˜ș ….(4)
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Adaptive MIT (AMIT) algorithm
Although the adaptive control can actually deal
with black-, grey- and white-box problems, it is
more suitable for dealing with the grey-box one,
since there is no need to apply a “no model” control
method when a process is clear and it is not a good
idea to attack a black-box problem without making
the effort to understand the process. Based on a
priori knowledge, the process is modeled as second
order.
V. MODEL REFERENCE ADAPTIVE
CONTROL
The model-reference adaptive system (MRAS)
is an important controller. It may be regarded as an
adaptive servo system in which the desired
performance is expressed in terms of a reference
model, which gives the desired response to a
command signal. This is a convenient way to give
specification for a servo problem.
The system has an ordinary feedback loop
composed of the process and the controller and
another feedback loop that changes the controller
parameters. The parameters are changed on the
basis of feedback from the error, which is the
difference between the output of the system and the
output of the reference model.
Fig. 3.Model reference adaptive control
The mechanism for adjusting the parameters in
a model-reference adaptive system can be obtained
in two ways: by using a gradient method or by
applying stability theory. The adaptation law[7]
uses the error between the process and the model
output, the process output and input signal to vary
the parameters of the control system. These the
parameters varied so as to minimize the error
between the process and the reference.
 IEEE International Conference on Power, Control, Signals and Instrumentation Engineering (ICPCSI-2017)

VI. MODEL REFERENCE ADAPTIVE

CONTROL TOOLBOX

Adaptive is called a control system, which can

adjust its parameter automatically in such a way as
to compensate for variations in the characteristics
of the process it control. In systems where mixing
is highly non ideal, the well-mixed model is
inadequate and we must resort to other modeling
techniques, such as residence-time distributions, to
obtain meaningful results. The Model Reference
adaptive Control Toolbox is a collection of
software that helps to design, analyze, and
implement an advanced industrial automation
algorithm. Like other MATLAB tools, it provides a
convenient graphical user interface (GUI) as well
as a flexible command syntax that supports Fig.4: Adaptive controller output with reference model output
4
customization. A Model Reference adaptive x 10
3
Control Toolbox controller automates a target
system (the plant) by combining a prediction and a 2
control strategy. An approximate plant model
provides the prediction. The control strategy 1
compares predicted plant signals to a set of
E r ro r

0
objectives, and then adjusts available actuators to
achieve the objectives while respecting the plant’s -1
constraints. The Model Reference adaptive Control
Toolbox controller considers such factors -2
explicitly, allowing it to allocate the available plant
resources intelligently as the system evolves over -3
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
time. Time in sec

Fig.5: Error output

VII. RESULTS & DISCUSSION

1.4
The water inflow is taken as the input data and
CSTR level is taken as the output data for this 1.2
CSTR pilot plant. Data collection is done manually
through virtual instrumentation data acquisition 1
P ID o u tp u t

cards and the plots are developed using MATLAB 0.8

and are given below.
The adaptive controller is designed for the 0.6
CSTR’s mathematical model and it is given below
0.4

Gp(s)= 9.787e-005s2-1.496e-006s+6.751e-008 0.2

S3+0.008699s2+0.0006856s+7.865e-008
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
The reference model transfer function 4
Time in sec
calculated is a second order transfer function and is x 10
given below. Fig.6: PID Controller output

GR(s)= 16
S2+8s+16

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 IEEE International Conference on Power, Control, Signals and Instrumentation Engineering (ICPCSI-2017)

1.4 control techniques and intelligent controllers can be

implemented for the same process to analyze the
1.2
responses with respect to all time domain
1 parameters.
P ID o u tp u t

0.8 IX. References

0.6
0.4
0.2
0 [2]
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Time in sec
Fig.7: PID controller output with faster response using auto
tuning
For the normal PID controller the output
response takes around 3*104sec to settle. But
whereas the adaptive controller with a adaptive
gain value of (50/1.05s) gives a faster settling
response of around 30 seconds. When we start
changing the adaptive gain value to (200/1.05s) the
controller tunes the system performance and the
process settle around 20 seconds. The output plot
for the change of gain is shown below.
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Fig.8: Adaptive controller output with change in gain

VIII. CONCLUSION & FUTURE SCOPE

In this paper one of the adaptive controllers

(Model Reference Adaptive Control) is
implemented for the CSTR pilot process and its
performance is analyzed with the conventional
controllers. The Model Reference Adaptive
Controller shows a greater control action in
attaining a faster response. In future other adaptive

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