Conference article

In this paper we make a physiological based dynamic model of a laboratory scale industrial tank process configured with an inlet pump and an outlet valve. Thus, the pump and valve characteristics, and also the functional expression for the hydrostatic pressure, are fitted to enzymatic mechanisms and saturable signaling kinetics. The model is verified against process data and shows good compliance. Based on the model, we tune and apply a physiological inspired control structure to control the water level in the presence of disturbances in the inlet pump speed. This control structure is further compared to an Icontroller, and we show that one of the main properties of physiological control is that the steady state level of the controlled variable may deviate from the setpoint value. We continue by showing how to lump this deviation and the setpoint into a variable setpoint controller. The main benefit of such a controller is reduced variation in the control signal (calculated as total variation, TV). Based on these results, we finally suggest an industrial control structure where the control signal participates in the continuous calculation of a variable setpoint.

physiological control, integral control, tank process, variable setpoint