Automatic Tuning of PI Controllers for an Irrigation Canal Pool

Abstract

This paper presents a method to automatically tune decentralized proportional integral (PI) controllers for an irrigation canal pool. The auto tune variation (ATV) method is based on a relay experiment, which generates small amplitude oscillations of the canal pool. The ATV procedure can be used to get the integrator delay model parameters of a canal pool, which in turn can be used to tune a PI controller using classic rules, or other rules such as the ones proposed by Litrico and Fromion. This method does not require advanced automatic control knowledge and is implemented in the SIC software developed by Cemagref, which also incorporates a supervisory control and data acquisition module for real-time control. The ATV method is evaluated by simulations and experiments on a real irrigation canal located in the South of France, for local upstream, local downstream, and distant downstream controller tuning.