AbstractThis paper presents a novel scheme called Laboratory Testbed for Embedded Fuzzy Control of a Real Time Nonlinear System. The idea is based upon the fact that project-based
learning motivates students to learn actively and to use their engineering skills acquired in their previous years of study. It also
fosters initiative and focuses students attention on authentic realworld problems. At the same time, it enhances their learning. Students gain hands-on experience and improve their skills in product
development, self-directed learning, teamwork, and project management. There has been a tremendous rise in the popularity of
intelligent control techniques like fuzzy logic for use in industrial
control applications in recent times. These techniques, which were
primarily conceived for nonlinear control applications, are best implemented using embedded controllers, which can use their capabilities to the maximum. While courses in electrical and computer
engineering cover several areas like digital and analog integrated
circuits, microprocessors and control Systems, and process control,
few of these integrate all these areas with focus on the application of
intelligent techniques in real-time systems. Also, there is a growing
need in industry for engineers who can perform software design
and system integration for various applications in embedded control. This paper aims at developing such a practical task as one
of the major projects in the eighth semester of the program offered by the Instrumentation and Control Engineering (ICE) Department of Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), Delhi
University, India, to design a real-time embedded controller implementing an intelligent control technique, fuzzy logic, for control applications. These applications might, for example, be level
control, flow control, or pressure control. The paper discusses an
example of a real-time pressure control system for which a microcontroller-based fuzzy proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller has been simulated and implemented with satisfactory results.
Index TermsFuzzy control, intelligent control, pressure control, real-time system.
I. INTRODUCTION
EY concepts and techniques in the area of intelligent systems and control have been discovered and developed
over the past few decades. While some of these methods have
significant benefits to offer, engineers in the late 90s were often
reluctant to use new intelligent control techniques for several
reasons:
Manuscript received December 24, 2008; revised May 15, 2009 and
September 19, 2009; accepted November 23, 2009. Date of publication
February 05, 2010; date of current version February 02, 2011.
S. Srivastava is with the Instrumentation and Control Engineering Department, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (NSIT), New Delhi 110 078, India
(e-mail: smriti@nsit.ac.in).
D. Arun Kumar is with the Humanities Department, Netaji Subhas Institute of
Technology (NSIT), New Delhi 110 078, India (e-mail: duruarun@rediffmail.
com).
V. Sukumar is with School of Electrical Engineering, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA (e-mail: vidya@gatech.edu).
P. S. Bhasin is with the Connectivity and Broadcast Business Unit, STEricsson, Greater Noida 201 308, India (e-mail: bhasin.parampreet@ieee.org).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TE.2010.2041004
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and
.
is the desired output,
is the actual output,
is the
number of data samples, and (1 to ) is the number of inputs.
As reduces, the approximation of the system improves, and
therefore, in a SISO system, the mathematical model closely
tracks the actual system. The reason for using the normalized
mean square error is that it provides a universal platform for
model evaluation irrespective of application and target value
specification while selecting an input to the model.
The parameter update formula is
where
(8)
, , and ),
where is any parameter to be learned (i.e.,
and is the th epoch. The gradient descent technique to update
the aforementioned parameters [19] is
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(3)
The indices , indicate th input and th rule.
The values of
,
, and
are initialized using a fuzzy
curve approach [20]. The weighted normalized value of the
input membership function
for th data is
(4)
or
(6)
where is the output, is the number of rules, and is the total
number of inputs. is the value of the membership function,
and is the normalized membership function.
,
, and
are the parameters of the system model.
Learning Algorithm: For tuning the fuzzy parameters, the
objective function
chosen is the normalized mean square
error, as described by (8).
The following form is assumed for :
(7)
(14)
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Fig. 2. Control algorithm. FLC: Fuzzy logic controller. mf: Membership functions. SP: Set point.
B. Selection of Microcontroller
Following the code conversion, the appropriate microcontroller [21], [22] should be selected for the control problem
under study. This is an important task that tests the students understanding of different microcontrollers and their capabilities.
The design of an embedded computer system involves compromises between memory usage of the application code, power
consumption of the module, processor speed, algorithm complexity, use of modern sensor and actuator technologies, and
cost of hardware and software components. All these factors
must be balanced against the overall cost of the device to come
to the best possible solution. This may vary from problem to
problem and with changing environments for the same problem.
Once the microcontroller has been selected, the additional
components that may be required must be interfaced with the
central controller in order to develop the complete hardware design. The complete system is then interfaced with the system
under study to maintain the controlled variable at a desired set
point. Error detection capabilities and warning signals may be
additionally included in the system thus designed.
connection is made through a control valve, which is to be regulated using a fuzzy-logic-based controller. The computer sends
electrical signals according to the control strategy, which is sent
to an electronic-to-pneumatic (E/P) converter connected to the
valve. This generates corresponding pressure signals of 4 to 20
mA, converted into 3 to 15 psi, which are subsequently used to
open or close the valve as desired. Real-time systems are also
marked by disturbances, which need to be considered while devising the control strategy [13]. In this system, a manual valve
is connected to the tank, which is randomly opened or closed in
order to simulate disturbances. For the sake of clarity, the block
diagram of the system under study is shown in Fig. 4.
The system contains several nonlinearities like backlash, friction, hysteresis in the control and manual valves, and inherent
delays in different parts of the system.
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the two methods with respect to the time taken to achieve the
desired set point and the ability of the controller to return to the
desired set point on the occurrence of parameter perturbations
and disturbances. The parameter of the model was perturbed at
the 50th iteration.
Figs. 5 and 6 show the plot of mean square error (MSE)
versus number of iterations obtained using a fuzzy-controlled
and a PID controller, respectively. Once the performance index
is minimized, a disturbance of the order of 5% of the input is introduced in the system, and the response of the system is studied.
It can be seen that the fuzzy-controlled system has a smaller settling time, less than 10 iterations, while the PID controller takes
almost 50 iterations to do the same. On the introduction of a
disturbance on the 50th iteration, the fuzzy controller nullifies
its effect within the next two or three iterations, while the PID
controller takes almost 20 iterations to do the same. This clearly
indicates the robustness of the fuzzy system as compared to the
PID based system.
From the above analysis, it can be observed that the fuzzy
controller is more suited to controlling the system under study
than is a classical PID controller; hence, fuzzy control technique
was selected for the pressure control system [23].
D. Real-Time Implementation of Fuzzy Controller
1) PC-Based Design: A computer-based fuzzy controller
was initially developed for the pressure plant based on the previous analysis. This step may be skipped for faster testing and
implementation of the algorithm, and the student may proceed
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TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO PROJECT GROUPS
8) Did you benefit from the lecture taken for improving the
interpersonal and group-working skills?
On an average, 80% of the enrolled students filled in the feedback forms. They made the following observations.
On the prerequisite subjects, some of the students (15%) said
that prior learning based on the courses taught in the first and
second year did not adequately prepare them to carry out their
Major Project and that courses like Adaptive Control, Fuzzy
& Neural Control Digital Signal Processing, Intelligent Control,
and Advanced Microcontrollers should be added to the syllabus,
at least as electives.
Regarding the time allocated to the project work, about 88%
of the students were very involved and enthusiastic about the
project work.
As far as lectures were concerned, about 80% of the students
were very positive and wished to increase the number of lectures
on various other topics such as time management, inflation, balance sheets, and hardware-software co-design [27].
These points have been noted by the department and are under
consideration.
Recommendations and suggestions made by students are the
following:
Experts from various industries should be invited from
time to time in order to share their views on the projects.
Industries should be allowed to go through the projects
and implement the completed projects if required. There
should be a frequent industryinstitute interaction.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Netaji Subhas Institute of
Technology, New Delhi, India, for supporting this research.
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Smriti Srivastava received the B.E. degree in electrical engineering and the
M.Tech. degree in heavy electrical equipment from Maulana Azad College of
Technology [now Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT)],
Bhopal, India, in 1987 and1991, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in intelligent
control from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, in 2005.
From 1988 to 1991, she was on the faculty of MANIT, and since August
1991, she has been with the Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi University, New Delhi,
India, where she is currently the Associate Head of the department and holds
the rank of Assistant Professor. She has a number of publications in journals
and conferences in the area of neural networks, fuzzy logic, and control systems. She has given a number of invited talks and tutorials mostly in the area of
fuzzy logic, process control, and neural networks. Her current research interests
include neural networks, fuzzy logic, and hybrid methods in modeling, identification, and control of nonlinear systems.
Vidya Sukumar received the B.E. degree in instrumentation and control engineering from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India, in 2008.
She is currently a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering at
the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, where she is specializing in computer engineering. She is working on thermal modeling techniques and challenges at the micro-architecture and circuit level and has previously worked in
the area of bioinstrumentation and control for assistive devices.
Parampreet Singh Bhasin (S07M09) received the B.E. degree (First Class
with Distinction) in instrumentation and control engineering from Netaji Subhas
Institute of Technology, Delhi University, New Delhi, India, in 2008.
He is currently working with ST-Ericsson India Pvt. Ltd., Greater Noida, as
a Software Engineer with a focus on wireless technologies (WLAN and Bluetooth). Previously, he worked with National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi,
India, as an intern for over two years, working on low-cost embedded solutions
in the healthcare domain. He is interested in embedded systems, control systems, and wireless technologies.
Duru Arun Kumar was born on July 18, 1957, in Ajmer, India. She received
the Ph.D. degree in sociology of science from Mumbai University, Mumbai,
India, in 1990.
Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer at Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology,
New Delhi, India. Her major fields of study are the pursuit of science research,
technical education, and globalization in India.