PROCESS CONTROL

Disclaimer:

The articles/notes indicated by the symbol are compiled from a

variety of sources and provided for student usage only to complement a
lecture series. Neither the University nor the authors accept any liability
for the accuracy and content.

General and Introductory Material (Stage 1 and above)

• A brief history of feedback control

• Energy Wizard's Savings via Process Control - tips, guides and case studies
about how process control can help improve energy efficiency in
manufacturing plants

• Introduction to Statistical Process Control (Stage 2 and above)

• Charles William's Feedback and Temperature Control simulation
• John Shaw's notes on the
o PID Algorithms and Tuning Methods
o Ziegler-Nichols Closed Loop Tuning Method
o more
• F.G. Shinkey on Averaging Level Control
• Tom Marlin's Interactive Process Control Interactive Learning Modules, based
on his book, Process Control: designing processes and control systems for
dynamic performance, McGraw Hill, New York, 2000. (ISBN 0-07-039362-1).
Also, solutions to selected questions/exercises from the book.
• MATLAB
o Control tutorials for MATLAB and SIMULINK (Carnegie Mellon)
o Control Systems Toolbox tutorial (by TechTeach)
o Dr. Qammar from the Uni. of Akron, has made available a load of
MATLAB m.files used in his process control classes

• Process Dynamics (Stage 2 and above)

o Overview of Mechanistic Modelling
o Examples of Simple Mechanistic Models
o Differential Equations
o Laplace Transforms
• Poles and Zeros - an interactive tutorial
• And from The Readout Instrumentation Signpost
o Acronyms and Initials used in Control and Instrumentation
o Process Control and Instrumentation resources
• Tuning of PID controllers - a set of procedures by Abdul Aziz Ishak
• A complete course in Automatic Process Control by Prof. Tom Edgar of Uni.
Texas at Austin

Intermediate Level (Stage 3 and above)

• Process Control 2 notes by Mark Willis

 o Control of Level
o PID Control
o Some Conventional Control Schemes
o Selecting a Distillation Column Control Strategy (a basic guide).
o Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor Models

• Multivariable Systems and Control

o Multivariable Control: an introduction - a set of notes by Mark Willis
introducing multivariable control and relative gain analysis
o Introduction to decoupling control - continues with multivariable
systems; input-output structures and decoupling networks that can
alleviate problems associated with loop interactions. And the
overheads to go with the notes (set 1 and set 2).

• Advanced Process Control - what is it? A set of control notes that

does not contain equations.

• Digital Control (Stage 4 Control 4)

o Introductory Notes: Process Computer Implementation Strategies;
Mathematics of sampled data systems; Discrete PID controllers
o Design of simple digital controllers
o Dynamic models for controller design
o Minimum variance and generalised minimum variance control

• Robust Control study notes (Stage 4, Control 3)

o Introduction to Frequency Response
o Plotting Frequency Response
o Frequency Responses of Typical Systems
o Frequency Response of 2nd-order Underdamped System
o Applications of Frequency Response Techniques
o Useful things to remember when applying Frequency Response
Techniques
o Sensitivity Functions
o Brief Notes on Vector Norms
o Optimality of Control
o Model uncertainties
 example on how to quantifying modelling uncertainties
o Robust stability and robust performance
o Internal Model Control

• Dealing with Measurement Noise gives an introduction to noise

filtering (Stage 3, Process Measurement)

• Inferential Estimation and Control - what it is and why we need it.

• Review of Methods for Nonlinear Control - a set of notes by Mark

Willis
• Controlling vessels and tanks - a revealing article by Walter Driedger.
 • Model Predictive Control - a survey of MPC technology that is available
commercially by Joe Qin (Stage 4 and above)
• Model Uncertainty and Robust Control - a paper by Prof. Karl Astrom of
Lund University, Sweden
• Process control tutorials based around Tom Marlin's book (McMaster Uni.)
• Process Control Virtual Lab - from the Uni. Texas at Austin. Contains
tutorials and simulations to help with visualisation of system responses and to
practise controller tuning.
• Visit the Virtual Control Lab at Bochum University

Advanced Level (MSc. and above)

• Fuzzy Logic tutorial from the Seattle Robotics Society

• Fuzzy Systems - A Tutorial
• Multivariate Statistical Quality Control - Virginia U.
• Neural Networks
o Bibliography of Lie theory and Neural Networks collected by Yves
Moreau
o Neural Networks at your Fingertips
o Neural Networks FAQ
o The Perceptron provides a good introduction into the mechanism of the
perceptron

See also resources in Measurement and Instrumentation

Another good collection of Process Control Resources

Links to Process Control and Automation Information and Resources

e-Journals relevant to Process Control and Automation accessible from computers at Newcastle
University

• Artificial Intelligence
• Artificial Intelligence in Engineering
• Automatica
• Control Engineering Practice
• Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
• Expert Systems with Applications
• International Journal of Control
• Sensors and Actuators B:Chemical
• Signal Processing

• Systems and Control Letters