FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus Cascade Control in the Field Tuning Using Particle Swarm Optimization

Control in the field (control strategies used in fieldbus field devices) provides increased flexibility and cost efficiency, as well as improved process integrity in industrial plant operations. Despite the benefits listed above, communication delays caused by FOUNDATION™ the most typical issues encountered while adopting fieldbus technology are fieldbus networks and control loops. Using particle swarm optimization, this work proposes an effective tuning solution for cascade control strategies implemented in fieldbus field devices. The proposed optimal tuning approach is compared to the Ziegler-Nichols tuning method using a level-flow cascade control plant model in the Delt V distributed control system. Furthermore, experimental results showed that the proposed tuning strategy improved control loop performance.