Tuning of a Proportional-Integral-Derivative Controller using Multi-Objective Non Dominated Sorting Particle Swarm Optimization Applied to pH Control in Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

Problem statement: Most of the control engineering problems are characterized by several, contradicting, conflicting objectives, which have to be satisfied simultaneously. Two widely used methods for finding the optimal solution to such problems are aggregating to a single criterion and using Pareto-optimal solutions. Approach: Non-Dominated Sorting Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (NSPSO) based approach is used in the design of multiobjective PID controller to find the constant proportional-integral-derivative gains for a chemical neutralization plant. The plant considered in this study is highly non-linear and with varying time delay, provides a challenging test bed for nonlinear control problems. Results: Experimental results confirm that a multi-objective, Paretobased GA search gives a better performance than a single objective GA. Conclusion: Finally, the results for single objective and multiobjective optimization using NSPSO for the neutralization plant are compared. Gain scheduled PID controllers are designed from Pareto front obtained with NSPSO which exhibit good disturbance rejection capability.