PID Controller Tuning using DE and PSO optimization techniques

Abstract

The PID controllers are the most popular and widely used controllers in industry because of their simplicity; robustness and successful practical application that can provide excellent control performance despite the varied dynamic characteristics of plant .Determination or tuning of the PID parameters continues to be important as these parameters have a great influence on the stability and performance of the control system. Most of the processes are complex and nonlinear in nature resulting into their poor performance when controlled by traditional methods. The need for improved performance of the process has led to the development of optimal controllers. In this project, two modern heuristic techniques which are particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Differential evolution algorithm (DE) are used for tuning and optimizing PID parameters. A classical method, which is Ziegler and Nichols method, is also used. Finally, a comparison is made between classical method (ZN) and optimization methods (PSO and DE) are applied on high order system, the proposed methods were indeed more efficient and robust in improving the control performances of the PID algorithm.