Control of a Quadruple Tank System Using Two PID Controllers

This work details the mathematical modeling of a nonlinear multi-input multiple-output (MIMO) quadruple tank system (QTS) using the linearization principle and forming a Jacobean matrix to represent the system in a state space model. Using simulation tools in MATLAB software (Matlab /Simulink), a quadruple tank system is designed as well as a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller design to control the required liquid (water) level in the quadruple tank system (QTS).Initially, the parameters of the two PID controllers were tuned using a trial and error method, which involved setting the controller parameters manually, and the Automatically Tune the two PID controller method was then employed to tune the gain parameters of each PID controller. Finally, the genetic algorithm was used, which is a research and improvement method used to obtain the optimal values for the PID parameters. In addition, the effect of PID controllers on the steady-state response and transient response of a quadruple tank system was analysed.The results showed that using genetic algorithm-based optimization (GA) is easy to implement for both linear and non-linear systems and that a response of a system with the presence of the PID controller, which was adjusted using a genetic algorithm (GA) with the size of population 50 and the ISE fitness function, shows the best response compared to other the classical PID controllers’ responses.

I. Introduction

Control devices have received great attention among scientists and researchers in the field of electronics, as most of the electronic devices contain different controllers, which led to rapid developments in this scientific and technical field in order to obtain scientific results that serve the public interest in many fields and industrial systems after the engineers faced many problems in controlling and dealing with these complex and large non-linear industrial systems with multi-input and multi-output and possess many variables that can be changed and controlled with the presence of several interactive control loops.