Using simulated annealing for optimal tuning of a PID controller for time-delay systems. An application to a high-performance drilling process

Abstract

This paper shows a strategy based on simulated annealing for the optimal tuning of a PID controller to deal with time-varying delay. The main goal is to minimize the integral time absolute error (ITAE) performance index and the overshoot for a drilling-force control system. The proposed strategy is compared with other classic tuning rules (the Ziegler-Nichols and Cohen-Coon tuning formulas). Other tuning laws derived from genetic algorithms and the Simplex search algorithm for unconstrained optimization are also included in the comparative study. The results demonstrate that simulated annealing provides an optimal tuning of the PID controller, which means better transient response (less overshoot) and less ITAE than with other methods. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.