摘要 |
A pattern-recognizing, self-tuning controller is provided for controlling a process wherein measured characteristics including at least one peak of an error signal, derived from the differences occurring over time between the values of a process controlled variable and a desired set-point level for that variable, are used for identifying the behavior pattern of the error signal so that an operating parameter of the controller can be changed as required to minimize process recovery time whenever the process is subsequently disturbed or an abrupt change is made to the set-point level at some later time. The preferred embodiment of the device is in the form of a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller in which the PID coefficients are calculated in accordance with prescribed relationships that are based on damping, overshoot and time period characteristics of the error signal. Provisions are also made for including a user-specified noise threshold in order to reduce substantially the possibility of detecting a noise peak as a true peak of the error signal. A pre-adapt mode is also included, in which the controller automatically determines the initial values of the PID coefficients, the noise threshold, and the approximate time scale of the process, before on-line adaptive control of the process is given to the controller. |