A Comparison of PID Controller TuningMethods for Three Tank Level Process

Abstract

Automatic controllers are introduced for efficient control of the process industries. Proportional, Integral and derivative (PID) controllers are the most widely used controllers in the most process industries because of their robustness, easy implementation and simplicity. Various tuning methods like Ziegler-Nichols (Z-N) method, Cohen- Coon(C-C) method, Minimum error integral criteria method and Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have been suggested for optimum setting of PID controller parameters. In this paper the performance of Genetic algorithm based PID controller is compared with conventional PID controller for various tuning techniques in the case of three tank level process control system. This comparative study is carried out for set point tracking of three tank level process using computer simulation.