MZ

sets and systems

ELSEVIER Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129

Fuzzy controller: design, evaluation, parallel and hierarchical

combination with a PID controller s
R. K e t a t a a, D . D e G e e s t b, A. T i t l i b'*
a Centre de Recherche et de Transfert de Technologie Gary Oceanis BP 152, F-44603 St. Nazaire cedex, France
b Laboratoire d'Analyse et d'Architecture des Systbmes du CNRS; 7, avenue du colonel Roche, 31077 Toulouse cedex, France

Received April 1994; revised June 1994

Abstract

Fuzzy techniques still remain ill-accepted in the control community. As a matter of fact, they rely on a new relation
between the real world and the scientists. Whereas some theoretical studies are carried out on this subject, experiments on
processes show what fuzzy techniques can bring to the control theory. This paper deals with some implementations of
control structures using fuzzy techniques. Our goal is to study the ways to include fuzzy techniques into existing control
tools in order to improve the closed-loop performances. The experiments are carried out on different processes with
disturbances: a DC motor and industrial furnaces. They allow to study the design and properties of structures such as
fuzzy control, commutation between fuzzy and PID controllers and fuzzy supervision of PID controller. After having
described two fuzzy controller implementations (fuzzy proportional-derivative and fuzzy proportional-integral control-
lers), the comparison with a PID algorithm is a base for the design of the parallel PID-fuzzy controllers combination.
Even though this strategy is interesting, another hierarchical combination of PID and fuzzy tools is considered. The
proposed fuzzy supervisor leads to promising results concerning the development of combined control structures.

Keywords: Fuzzy control; Fuzzy commutation; Fuzzy supervision

1. Introduction known, fuzzy techniques can be used to improve

During these last years, a specific interest for
fuzzy techniques in control has emerged. They
allow to generate numerical data from approximate
reasoning based on linguistic knowledge. The use
of such techniques is principally relevant in the
following cases. Firstly, if the process model is
*A short version has been presented at IFSA World
Congress, South Korea, July 1993.
* Corresponding author.
the closed-loop performances for linear or non-lin-
ear plants. When fuzzy controllers are used, the
ability to generate non-linear control laws with the
various degree of freedom is interesting [1]. Al-
though it is not always straightforward to tune
their numerous parameters, their rule-based nature
relies on a new approach introducing a convenient
way of designing and understanding the controller
[9]. Secondly, if the process model is unknown,
fuzzy techniques are useful for modelling human
operator knowledge [6, 8,9, 1]. In all cases, fuzzy

0165-0114/95/$09.50 1995 - Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

SSDI 0165-01 14(94)00189-8
114 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129
techniques are attractive for processing imprecise
data of some control loop signals [9].
The most usual applications of fuzzy techniques
in control are fuzzy controller, see [5] for some
examples. Experimentally, they have provided in-
teresting control results, often better than PID con-
trol results (for instance the fuzzy automatic train
operation system applied to the Sendai subway by
Hitachi Ltd. [5]). In this paper, we will describe
some fuzzy control applications and emphasize one
of their main advantages. However, some of the
fuzzy controller implementations lead to partially
good results. Moreover, it is still difficult to study
the closed-loop stability with such linguistic
controllers. Furthermore, algorithmic PID
controllers have also some advantages, such as the
dynamical performances reached in some nominal
operating conditions [2], reliability based on po-
ssible stability studies and their industrial wide-
spread use [2,7,3]. Therefore, other relevant
applications of fuzzy techniques can be considered
in order to complete the PID controller. Then, the
aim of fuzzy techniques is to push back the limits of
conventional techniques, and to improve existing
tools [3] by optimizing the closed-loop dynamical
performances of some concrete experiments [1].
Thus, fuzzy techniques are considered here in order
to build different kind of control structures. We
consider mixed control structures combining a PID
controller and fuzzy techniques, such as a parallel
structure and a hierarchical structure. The parallel
control structure development is motivated by the
idea of taking advantage of each controllers de-
pending on the current dynamical functioning do-
main [4]. The design of the hierarchical structure
[1,6,8,9,11,3] is mainly justified by the wish
to define more precisely control goals with a refer-
ence model expressing the desired dynamical
performances.
For each control algorithm, design methods and
properties are given. In some cases, some improve-
ments compared with PID control are emphasized.
Therefore, the goal of the present work is to evalu-
ate the advantages of using combinations of non-
conventional and conventional control techniques
by using them on different plants, some industrial
furnaces and a DC motor, on which external or
internal disturbances are applied.
2. The processes
2.1. D C motor
The first bench test is a motor-alternator group.
The process is modelled by a first-order system
with a static gain of 23.6 and a time constant of 3 s
when there is no load, and a static gain of 22 and
a time constant of 1.4 s when there is a load; see Eq.
(1). This model has been identified with the MAT-
LAB software. The change in the motor load is
considered as a disturbance
F(k + 1) = alF(k) + bt
x [U(k) + G ( k + 1)aU(k + 1)], (1)
where F(k + 1) is the angular speed, U(k) is the
control voltage of the rotor supply chopper,
al = - Te/Tm, bl = kin(1 - al), Te = 12ms is the
sampling period, Tm is the mechanical time con-
stant and km is the static gain.
2.2. Industrial furnaces
Some experiments are carried out on furnaces.
The control tests are performed on an electronic
simulator modelling first- and third-order pro-
cesses, see Eq. (2). An internal disturbance can be
applied on the static gain Gf for testing the robust-
ness of the controllers. The disturbance is simulated
using a gain increase of factor two at some time
during the experiment.
m Gf
,
6 ( p ) = 1 + Tsp
Gf
G ( p ) - (1 + Tsp)2(1 + Tup ) ' (2)
where Gf is the static gain, Ts is the time constant
and T~ is a smaller time constant.
3. Fuzzy controller
This first study is devoted to point out some of
the main advantages of fuzzy control.
 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129
3.1. Structure and design
The fuzzy controller computes values of either
the control signal (fuzzy PD controller) or the con-
trol increment signal (fuzzy PI controller), as
a function of the values of the process output error
and its increment. A description of the fuzzy con-
troller components is given in this section, see [5]
for an exhaustive synthesis of fuzzy controllers.
First of all, a quantization module discretizes
and normalizes the universes of discourse of the
various manipulated variables. Then, a numerical-
fuzzy converter maps crisp data to fuzzy numbers
characterized by a fuzzy set and a linguistic label.
These two first modules can be combined in one
numerical-symbolic interface. During the next
step, the inference engine applies the compositional
rule of inference to the rule base in order to derive
fuzzy values of the control signal from the input
facts of the controller. Finally, a fuzzy-numerical
converter and a dequantization module, forming
a symbolic-numerical interface, provide a numer-
ical value of the control signal or of the control
increment.
Thus, the various parameters of the fuzzy con-
troller can be enumerated: they are the scaling
factors and the number of quantization levels
needed to define the universes of discourse, the
fuzzification and defuzzification methods, the num-
ber, shape and definition of the fuzzy sets on the
normalized universes of discourse, the mathemat-
ical operators necessary for the fuzzy inference
mechanism and the syntax and meaning of the
fuzzy rules.
The factors of the numerical-symbolic interface
are defined in the quantization matrix: the first
column contains the quantization levels for the
various signals on their normalized universe of dis-
course, the following columns correspond to the
quantization levels on the real discretized universes
of discourse for all the variables, and the last one
gives the labels of the fuzzy sets which are centered
on a quantization level. The choice of the nor-
malized universes of discourse is arbitrary, it is
motivated by the easiness of manipulation of the
fuzzy sets; the fuzzy sets are regularly distributed on
those domains. The number of quantization levels
depends on the discretization accuracy required.
115
The bounds of the real universes of discourse are
deduced from the analysis of the physical signal
variations in the chosen operating conditions.
Some heuristic techniques allow to tune precisely
the scaling factors on-line. The fuzzy controller
is particularly sensitive to these factors and to
the fuzzy rule base content. The method used in this
work to derive the fuzzy rules is described now.
The desired closed-loop trajectory is defined in
the phase plane or in the temporal domain. The
graphic is divided into several regions, each
of which corresponds to a specific pair of error
and error increment fuzzy values. Each pair is
mapped to the necessary fuzzy value of the control
signal or control increment that will make the
process output converge towards the desired tra-
jectory. This mapping leads to the definition of
linguistic planes.
The parameters of the inference module are,
respectively, Mamdani implication function,
the Sup_min compositional rule of inference,
the discretized center of gravity defuzzification
method, the interpretation of the And and Or
connectors with the operators M i n i m u m and
Maximum.
When the process state is near the phase plane
origin, the base length of the fuzzy set zero leads to
some imprecisions in the computation of the con-
trol signal. The strategy used to overcome this
problem consists of defining two types of tuning:
a coarse tuning during the transient and a fine
tuning during the steady-state. The fine tuning is
characterized by a specific definition of the quantiz-
ation matrix.
The numerical control law can be effectively
computed with the quantization matrix, the rule
base, and the mathematical operators of the infer-
ence mechanism. Each kind of tuning procedure,
coarse or fine, is computed off-line and used on-line
with two look-up tables that link the quantized and
normalized values of the three considered signals, e,
Ae and U or A U. This control implementation is
motivated by the need of quick computation capa-
bilities for the fast DC motor.
Depending on the fuzzy controller output,
the controller is of the PD or PI type; the next
subsection describes these two different implemen-
tations.
116 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129

3.1.1. Fuzzy PD controller
The fuzzy P D controller computes the values of
the control signal U from some values of the pro-
cess output error e and of the error increment Ae.
Figs. 1 and 2 can be considered as an illustration if
the output of the defuzzification module is U in-
stead of AU. Tables 1 and 2 show, respectively, the
rule base and the look-up table derived for this
controller; see [4] for more details.
3.1.2. Fuzzy PI controller
The fuzzy PI controller computes the values of
the control increment AU from some values of the
process output error e, and of the error increment
Ae. Fig. 1 shows the structure of this controller used
off-line to generate the numerical look-up tables
with the inference mechanism. Fig. 2 gives an illus-
tration of the closed-loop implementation of this
control strategy with two tuning operating do-
mains [4"1. Tables 3 and 4 show, respectively,
the rule base and look-up table derived for this
controller.
A special control strategy is used; see [10] for
more details. It consists of using a fuzzy gain on the
control increment in order to improve the control
law; formula (3) expresses the control actions per-
formed. The reasons for this control increment tu-
ning are as follows. In the first place, it compensates
the various numerical approximations performed
during the fuzzy controller computing, mainly due
to the quantization. Consequently, the convergence
speed towards the reference signal can be increased
and the dynamical performances can be improved.

[,...o,oo.1 1 Table 1
The rule base for the fuzzy PD controller

eJ~Ae-~ NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB

NB NB NB NB NB NM NS ZE
NM NB NB NB NM NS ZE PS
NS NB NB NM NS ZE PS PM
ZE NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB
PS NM NS ZE PS PM PB PB
PM NS ZE PS PM PB PB PB
PB ZE PS PM PB PB PB PB
Fig. 1. The controller components for off-line inference.

F/////////////////~A

Fig. 2. Fine and coarse look-up tables for closed-loop fuzzy control.
 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129 117

Table 2
The look-up table for the fuzzy P D controller

e~ A e - , -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

-6 -6 -6 -6 -6 -6 --6 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0
-5 -6 --6 -6 -6 -6 -5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1
-4 -6 -6 -6 -6 --6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2
-3 --6 -6 -6 -5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
-2 -6 -6 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 --l 0 l 2 3 4
-1 -6 -5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -l 0 l 2 3 4 5
0 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 5 6
2 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 6
3 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 5 6 6 6
4 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 6 6 6
5 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 5 6 6 6 6 6
6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6

Table 3 Table 5
The rule base for the fuzzy PI controller The rule base for the control increment gain

e ~ Ae--, NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB eJ, A U ~ NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB

NB NB NB NB NM NS ZE PS NB PB PM PS ZE NS NM NB
NM NB NB NM NS ZE PS PM NM PM PM PS ZE NS NM NM
NS NB NM NS NS PS PM PB NS PS PS PS ZE NS NS NS
ZE NB NM NS PS PS PM PB ZE ZE ZE ZE ZE ZE ZE ZE
PS NB NM NS PS PS PM PB PS NS NS NS ZE PS PS PS
PM NM NS ZE PS PM PB PB PM NM NM NS ZE PS PM PM
PB NS ZE PS PM PB PB PB PB NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB

Table 4 However, it is necessary to respect a compromise

The look-up table for the fuzzy PI controller concerning this adjustment; its value must not be
too large in order to avoid stability problems, and
e~Ae~ - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 0 1 2 3 4 5
not be too small in order not to decrease the rise
--5 --5--5--4--4--3--101122 time. The gain is obtained from a look-up table
--4 -5--5--5--4--3--101122 depending on the values of the process output error
--3 - - 5 - 5 - 5 - 4 - - 3 - - 1 0 1 2 2 2 (reference value - process output) and of the con-
--2 --5 -5 --4 --4 --3 - - 1 1 2 3 3 3 trol increment. The rules used to derive this numer-
--1 --5 --5 --4 --3 --2 0 1 2 3 3 4
ical table are based on the fact that it is necessary to
0 --5 --4 --4 --2 -2 0 1 3 4 4 4
1 --4 --4 --3 --2 --l 0 2 3 4 4 4 diminish the power if the error is negative, then, the
2 -4--4--3--2--1 1 2 3 5 4 5 gain has to be positive if the control increment is
3 --3 -4 --2 --1 0 1 2 3 5 4 5 negative, or positive in the other case, etc. The rule
4 --2 --3 --2 --1 0 1 3 3 5 5 5 base is shown in Table 5. The resulting look-up
5 -2--3--1-1 0 1 3 3 5 5 5
table is given in Table 6.

U(k+ 1)-- U(k)+a(k+ 1) x A U ( k + 1), (3)

In the second place, this adjustment has a redund-
ant effect on the control result: it introduces a kind where U(k + l) is the control signal, AU(k + 1) is
of security, a new degree of freedom, because it the control increment and G(k + l) is the control
allows to correct some eventually ill-defined rules. increment gain.
118 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129

3.2. Simulations, comparison with a P I D controller m a t r i x is s h o w n in T a b l e 7. T h e l o o k - u p t a b l e h a s

b e e n g i v e n i n T a b l e 4.
Some experiments have been performed in simu- The studies aim at observing the influence of the
lation and in real time application using the ap- universe of discourse of the control increment
proaches described before. The tests on the DC gain G on the control quality. The two choices
motor allow to validate the fuzzy PI design method for the bounds of the universes of discourse of
by studying the influence of a tuning factor on the G are: [ - 0 . 0 4 , 0 . 0 4 ] for the coarse tuning,
c o n t r o l q u a l i t y w h e n a n e x t e r n a l d i s t u r b a n c e is [ - 0.004, 0 . 0 0 4 ] for t h e fine t u n i n g , a n d [ - 0.08,
a p p l i e d . T h e f u z z y P D c o n t r o l is a p p l i e d o n t h e 0.08] f o r t h e c o a r s e t u n i n g , [ - 0.004, 0 . 0 0 4 ] f o r t h e
industrial furnaces with an internal disturbance; the fine t u n i n g . Figs. 3 a n d 4 ( w h e r e C d e n o t e s coarse
results are compared with those of a PID control in a n d F fine) s h o w t h e r e s u l t s . I n all t h e r e s u l t s , t h e
order to stress one of the main advantage of fuzzy temporal axes are graduated in number of sampling
control. p e r i o d ; t h e r e f e r e n c e s p e e d is h e r e fixed a t
1 5 7 r a d / s , a n d t h e c o n t r o l s i g n a l is s a t u r a t e d b e -
3.2.1. Experiments on a D C motor t w e e n [0, 10 V ] .
T h e f u z z y c o n t r o l l e r u s e d is o f t h e P I t y p e a n d T h e r e s u l t s e m p h a s i z e t h a t t h e rise t i m e is i m -
h a s first b e e n u s e d i n s i m u l a t i o n . T h e q u a n t i z a t i o n proved whereas the overshoot increases when the

Table 6
The look-up table for the control increment gain

e~Ae~ -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5

-5 5 4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 --4 -5
--4 4 4 3 2 1 0 --1 -2 --3 -4 -4
-3 3 3 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -3 --3
-2 2 2 2 2 1 0 -1 -2 -2 --2 -2
-1 1 1 1 1 1 0 --l -1 -1 -1 -1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 -1 -1 -1 --1 --1 -1 -1 --1 -I -1 -I
2 --2 --2 -2 -2 -1 0 1 2 2 2 2
3 --3 -3 -3 -2 --1 0 1 2 3 3 3
4 -4 -4 -3 --2 --l 0 1 2 3 4 4
5 --5 --4 --3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5

Table 7
Quantization matix for the DC motor control

Coarse tuning Fine tuning

Q e Ae Au G FS e Ae Au G FS

--5 -15 -1.5 -1 -0.04 NB . . . .

- 4 - 12 - 1.2 - 0.8 - 0.032 - - 1.4 - 0.14 - 0.8 - 0.008 NB
- 3 - 9 - 0.9 -- 0.6 - 0.024 - -- 1.05 - 0.105 - 0.6 - 0.006 -
-- 2 - 6 -- 0.6 - 0.4 - 0.016 - 0.7 -- 0.07 - 0.4 -- 0.004 -
-- 1 - 3 - 0.3 - 0.2 - 0.008 - - 0.35 - 0.035 - 0.2 - 0.002 -
0 0 0 0 0 ZE 0 0 0 0 ZE
1 3 0.3 0.2 0.008 - 0.35 0.035 0.2 0.002 -
2 6 0.6 0.4 0.016 - 0.7 0.07 0.4 0.004 -
3 9 0.9 0.6 0.024 - 1.05 0.105 0.6 0.006 -
4 12 1.2 0.8 0.032 - 1.4 0.14 0.8 0.008 PB
5 15 1.5 1 0.04 PB . . . . .
 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129 119

(a) (a)

flw~'$

I
501/
i-, "'- t..'"
I~2
oof; Le~ |

0 11300 2000 3000 4(300 513130 60130 7000 8000 ~ 10000 0o t~ 2~ ~o ,=o ~ o ~o ~ ,~o 9=0 ,==

(b) (b)
v V

/
10

7
6
6

5 4
o 10130
IG 2QO0 3000 4000 5(100 6000 7000 moo ~ 0 s0m0

(c) (c)
2 2, , -.

I l
-2 .2

,
0 1000 2000 3060 4000 50~0 GO00 7000 $0013 ~00 I~ o ~ ~ ~oo ,=o ~ ~0 ~=, ~, ~, I~

(d) (d)

0 10130 2000 3000 4000 5000 61300 7000 8000 9000 10~0 ~o ~ ~ ~ ~ ~lo ~ ~ =~o ~oo , I

Fig. 3. GC,x = 0.04, G ~ = 0.004. (a) Process output. (b) C o n - Fig. 4. Gm=xc= 0,08, G,~,xv= 0.004. (a) Process output. (b) Con-
trol signal. (c) C o n t r o l increment (QL). (d) Control increment trol signal. (c) Control increment (QL). (d) Control increment
gain (QL). Q L denotes quantization levels. gain (QL).
120 R. Ketata etal. /Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129
(a)
0 SO0 1000 ISO0 2000 2~ 3000 3~ ~ ~00
(b)
U7"27"3~7"46.
..... 117"I? !
i.7
'~'~
V ~, ,*** , ~ 2*** 2~ ~ 3;** a
Fig. 5. Real time control of the DC motor. (a) Process output. (b) Control signal. (c) Control increment (QL). (d) Control increment
gain (QL).
bound of the gain universe of discourse is increas-
ing. The steady-state errors are not exactly zero
because the integral action is very small, specially in
the case when Gma c x is 0.04, but the goal of these
experiments was to study the influence of the gain
universe of discourse and not to optimize the fuzzy
controller tuning.
Figs. 5 shows the results of the real time motor
control with the universes of discourse of the con-
trol increment gain belonging to [ - 0.08,0.08] for
the coarse tuning and [ - 0.004, 0.004] for the fine
tuning. The results are different from those ob-
tained in simulation mainly because of the experi-
mental constraints: the motor is functioning near
the saturation voltage of the chopper. The rise time
is small, about 150 ms. Some oscillations appear in
steady state when the motor has no load: this
phenomenon is caused by the mechanical disturb-
ances of the motor axe, the control signal is very
sensitive to these vibrations.
3.2.2. Experiments on industrial furnaces
The fuzzy controller used is of the P D type. The
quantization matrix is shown in Table 8. The look-
up table has been given in Table 2.
(c)
(d)
,/~
I 2
' '
I
A comparative study between a PID control and
a fuzzy control is performed. Figs. 6 show the
results. In the first one, a first-order process with
a time constant of 100 s and a gain of 1 has been
used. In the second case, a third-order process with
time constants of 100 and 10 s and a gain of 1 has
been considered. In the two cases, a disturbance is
applied on the gain.
The following conclusions can be stated. Firstly,
both controllers are able to handle the disturbance.
Secondly, during the steady state, some oscillations
appear with the fuzzy controller, whereas the PID
controller is much more stable. Thirdly, during the
transients, at the beginning of a step change or after
a disturbance, the fuzzy controller is quicker to
converge to the setpoint than the PID controller.
These results show the ability of the considered fuzzy
controller to improve the closed-loop performances
during the transient. Nevertheless, during the steady
state, only the PID controller can give no steady
state error by means of the integral time constant.
The first idea of combining fuzzy and algorithmic
techniques emerges from these remarks. Fuzzy tech-
niques replace the PID controller during the transi-
ent; consequently, the advantages of each technique
are used depending on the current dynamical phase.
 R. Ketata et al. Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129 121

Table 8
Q u a n t i z a t i o n m a t i x for the furnace c o n t r o l

Coarse tuning Fine tuning

Q e Ae u FS e Ae u FS

-6 -12 -1.2 0 NB -1.8 -0.18 20 NB

-5 - l0 -1 0 - 1.5 -0.15 25 -
-4 -8 -0.8 0 NM -1.2 -0.12 30 NM
-3 -6 -0.6 0 -0.9 -0.09 35
- 2 - 4 - 0.4 0 NS - 0.6 - 0.06 40 NS
- 1 - 2 - 0.2 21 - - 0.3 - 0.03 45
0 0 0 50 ZE 0 0 50 ZE
I 2 0.2 81 0.3 0.03 55
2 4 0.4 100 PS 0.6 0.06 60 PS
3 6 0.6 100 - 0.9 0.09 65
4 8 0.8 100 PM 1.2 0.12 70 PM
5 10 1 100 - 1.5 0.15 75
6 12 1.2 100 PB 1.8 0.18 80 PB

(a) (b)
"C ----~
tO0 --~ ~ ~ --~ I00

FLOU

50 lid . 50

[ 0 2,0 ,00 [ 0 250 ,00/

Fig. 6. F u z z y a n d P1D c o n t r o l of the furnaces. (a) First o r d e r model. (b) T h i r d o r d e r model.

4. Parallel structure: PID and fuzzy controllers
4.1. General principle
A first idea to combine conventional and non-
conventional control techniques consists of build-
ing a parallel structure; see Fig. 7. According to the
current dynamical state, either the PID or the fuzzy
controller is selected. The fine tuning of the fuzzy
controller is somewhat replaced by the PID
control.
The main point during the design of this control
structure is the commutation logic. For this pur-
pose, fuzzy rules express the switching strategy. An
additional fuzzy variable is defined. The selection of
a controller is based on the state of this variable: for
a value of 1 the fuzzy controller is chosen, and for
a value of 0 the PID controller is activated. The
state of the fuzzy commutation variable is defined
in terms of the error and of the error increment
sign. The method developed is based on the follow-
ing definition of the transient: the product of the
122 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129

error (process o u t p u t - reference signal) and its
increment is strictly negative. When the error in-
crement is equal to the fuzzy value zero and the
error is small, and not only zero, the PID controller
is selected. This definition prevents a lot of useless
commutations between the two controllers. Thus,
the linear conventional controller is selected when
the temporal response is near the steady state,
whereas the fuzzy controller is chosen during the
transients. The operating domain around the origin
for the PID controller must be dependent on
the process dynamic. The resulting commutation
strategy is illustrated in the phase plane and with
a rule base in Fig. 8. An example of one commuta-
tion rule is
IF e IS ZE AND Ae IS ANY T H E N V~IS ZE.
(4)

4.2. Results

The experiments are carried out on the motor-

alternator group. The Ziegler-Nichols method is
used to tune optimally the PID controller para-
meters: the control quality is stated in terms of
rapid recovery from oscillations. We use the PI
fuzzy controller described before. The results are
shown in the Figs. 9 (the PID control is represented
_ f - IR
T ~COIl~lllOtt with the dotted line). The reached performances
are: a rise time of 150 ms for the parallel control
structure and 225 ms for the PID controller. The
graphic of the commutation variable (Fig. 9b)
Fig. 7. The parallel control structure. shows that the fuzzy controller is used during all

e [ Ae ~ NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB
NB PID PID PID F F F F !
NM PID PID PID F F F F
NS PID PID PID PID F F F i...... S

ZE PID PID PID PID PID PID PID

PS F F F PID PID PID PID
PM F F F F PID PID PID
PID ! ~ E
PB F F 'F F PID PID PID

PID I'-'1 FLrZZY

Fig. 8. The commutation strategy (F means fuzzy).

(a) (b)
radN

'~l~,dl Load2 Load3

0v , , , , , i 4.,I0 100 200 300 400 ~0 8o0 700 800 200 1001

Fig. 9. Parallel fuzzy-P1D control of the DC motor speed. (a) Motor speed response. (b) Commutation variable.
 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129
the transients. The proposed parallel control struc-
ture is effectively able to combine the rapidity of the
fuzzy controller during the transient with the accu-
racy of the PID controller during the steady state.
However, the problem of the precise determination
of the commutation points between PID and fuzzy
controllers is not straightforward. The supple-
mentary fuzzy variable has to be well defined: the
functioning domains for each controllers should be
chosen so that the dynamical performances are
optimal. Furthermore, two static controllers are
used. It would be more interesting to state more
precisely the control goals in terms of dynamical
performances with a reference model. Then,
another kind of combination of conventional and
non-conventional techniques is considered in the
next section in order to improve a linear
PID control law. A dynamical controller combin-
ing fuzzy and algorithmic techniques is now
proposed.
5. Fuzzy supervision of a PID controller
5.1. General presentation
5.1.1. Justification of the use of fuzzy supervisors
A hierarchical structure is built up: the PID
parameters are tuned in order to improve the dy-
namical response on-line; see Fig. 10.
There are several reasons for supervising a PID
controller. In this section is successively justified
the necessity of using supervision techniques, the
i
i
I
i
i
J
II
i
Fig. 10. The fuzzy supervisor over the closed loop.
123
advantages of rule-based systems, and the interest
of incorporating fuzzy concepts.
The main reason for supervising PID controllers
is that they are widely used in many industrial
control applications. However the tuning methods,
such as the Ziegler-Nichols one, can lead to some
unacceptable results, for example, in terms of over-
shoot; then, the process operators do about 50% of
the control in open loop [6]. Moreover this con-
troller is robust in low disturbed conditions but
becomes under-optimal when large variations of
some control loop parameters occur, such as inter-
nal disturbances, when there are changes in the
operating conditions, or when a process has impor-
tant non-linearities [11, 8]. Consequently, a mod-
ule with some degree of intelligence is necessary to
improve the abilities of the PID controllers to con-
trol optimally systems in highly disturbed context
and according to the user's wishes [9].
The main reasons for using preferably a super-
vision module over a PID controller are enu-
merated now. Firstly, adaptive controllers are able
to cope with most of the cases that leave the PID
under-optimal, but they require specialized design
methods using some a priori model structure
knowledge [9]; PID supervisors are easier to im-
plement because they need very little knowledge
about the process. Secondly, the combination of
a linear PID control law and a supervision strategy
can lead to a highly non-linear control law; then it
can allow to increase significantly the robustness of
the control system [1]. And lastly, the supervisor
124 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129
can provide an interface with the user for express-
ing precisely the specifications in terms of closed-
loop performances [7].
The advantages to use a PID supervisor having
been emphasized, the question is now to find the
best choice between an algorithmic or a linguistic
supervision module. Process operators are able to
optimize the PID control results on-line, they act as
system supervisor [9]. Their knowledge is very
useful for the tuning of hardly modelled system [6].
Thus, it appears very attractive to build the PID
supervisors from this human heuristic knowledge.
It is more convenient to design linguistic expert
supervisor because a knowledge-based system
is a mean of integrating the intuitive and often
necessary knowledge of a human operator in the
control system; it is easier to integrate heuristic
knowledge in linguistic rules than in equations [1].
This choice results in lower design and implement-
ation costs than conventional techniques [8].
Moreover, the linguistic formalism is more easily
understood by the users, which leads to a low use
cost [8]. The combination of mathematical and
linguistic knowledge, like the association of a PID
algorithm and a rule-based supervisor, allow to
combine the interesting performances of the PID
controller in the nominal conditions with the flexib-
ility of a linguistic formalism to new situations [8].
The question is now to point out what the fuzzy
techniques can bring to an expert system aiming at
optimizing a process control. The use of fuzzy vari-
ables in the linguistic formalism is justified by the
facts that they introduce a greater flexibility in the
tuning actions of the PID parameters; as a matter
of fact, the fuzzy formalism is nearer to the human
perception of the real world and to the human
reasoning way. Indeed, fuzzy sets allow to model
subjective, uncertain and imprecise concepts like
the human language does [9]; the incorporation of
possibilistic informations is much more difficult
with classical techniques. Moreover, the inference
mechanism with fuzzy rules offers an important
flexibility in information processing, it allows to
perform approximate reasoning. Finally, an inter-
esting consequence of the use of fuzzy concepts in
the supervisor linguistic rules is a quicker conver-
gence of the PID parameters to their optimal
values than with a classical expert system [6].
5.1.2. Different kinds of fuzzy supervisors
The internal structure of a supervisor is the same
as the one of a fuzzy controller. The supervisor
outputs are the PID parameter increments. The
inputs can be of two natures, which defines two
kinds of supervisors.
In the first case, the inputs are the process output
error and its increment. The goal of the PID para-
meters tuning is to adapt the control law at each
sampling time. Some examples of this supervision
technique are given in [8, 1, 11, 3]. The main differ-
ences between these implementations are the num-
ber of rule tables. In [8, 1], one rule base has been
defined for each PID parameters, whereas in
[11, 3], one rule base was derived for the three
parameters. More precisely, in [11], three PID
parameter tuning equations using the output vari-
able of the rule base are defined, whereas in [3], the
Ziegler-Nichols equations are changed according
to the fuzzy supervisor output.
In the second case, the supervisor inputs are the
performance values reached after a transient. The
measure of the control quality during a time inter-
val and the user wishes allow to compute the con-
trol law tuning for the future. Some examples of this
supervision technique are given in [9, 6]. The main
difference between these implementations is the
way the supervision rules are built. In [9], two
different rule bases are adapting independently the
proportional gain in function of the rise time, and
the integral parameter in function of the overshoot.
In [6], two rule bases are used in the following way:
the first one deduces the changes to be applied to
the various controller parameters depending on
five performance indexes, the second one solves the
compromise if the action on one controller para-
meter has a contradictory effect on several desired
dynamical characteristics.
5.2. Description of the proposed fuzzy supervisor
The supervision technique developed in this
work is of second type. The values of the rise time
T~, overshoot Or, and stability factor Sf (ratio of the
first undershoot to the first overshoot) are used to
tune the PID parameters at the end of each transi-
ent response. Fig. 11 shows the fuzzy supervisor
implementation in closed loop. The goal of the
 R. Ketata et al, / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129
~UZZO~OCA~'O@N D~3~g~O~TOOH
% 1
.l ,.I
COMI~II'A'nON I
kp TI t Td t
.f -f
Fig. 11. The fuzzy supervisor components.
supervision is to make the process response con-
verge towards a reference profile considered as
optimal.
The main supervisor parameters to be tuned are
those of the numerical-symbolic interface and of
the fuzzy rules.
The parameters of the N - S module are given in
the quantization matrix for the different supervisor
signals. Their choice is explained now. The
universes of discourse of the various variables (the
supervisor input signals are the performance char-
acteristics, and the supervisor output variables are
the PID parameters) are normalized and dis-
cretized. It is first necessary to define the physical
domain of variation of the various signals. The
bounds of the real universes of discourse are de-
duced from the desired values of the closed-loop
performances, and, in the case of the supervisor
inputs, these bounds are also tied to some stability
analysis. The resulting formula for the definition of
the maximal values of the supervisor outputs is
given in (5). The idea is to define some parameter
increments which prevent from going towards in-
stability. For the supervisor inputs, the desired
values of the dynamical performances correspond
to the fuzzy sets PM.
valuemax = I ( k ' - kd) J,
where k] is the stability limit value of each PID
parameter and kd is its desired value, allowing to
reach a specified closed-loop behaviour.
125
Seven quantization levels have been chosen, from
- 6 to +6, for the supervisor outputs, and three
levels, 2,4 and 6, for the supervisor inputs. The
fuzzy sets have been defined on the normalized
universes of discourse. For the supervisor outputs,
several trapezoidal fuzzy sets are regularly distrib-
J
uted (their labels are: NB, NM, NS, ZE, PS, PM
and PB). For the supervisor inputs, four trap-
ezoidal positive fuzzy sets (ZE, PS, PM and PB) are
non-linearly distributed depending on the desired
closed-loop performances.
The linguistic knowledge is elaborated as de-
scribed in the following approach. The supervision
law translates the fact that the control law has to
make the process response converge towards a ref-
erence model. This reference trajectory is character-
ized by some performance characteristic fuzzy
values labelled medium. The antecedents of the
supervision rules contain the fuzzy values of the
dynamical performances, and the conclusions give
the corresponding linguistic meaning for the PID
parameter increments; relationship (6) shows an
example of a fuzzy supervision rule.
IF T~ IS FSTr AND Ov IS FSov AND Sr IS FSs,
THEN AK IS FSK (6)
where FSr,, FSov and FSsf are, respectively, the
linguistic labels of the fuzzy sets describing the
performance indexes: T~, the rise time, Or, the over-
shoot and Sf, the stability factor; they belong to
{PP, PM, PB}; FSk is a linguistic label of the fuzzy
sets describing one of the PID parameter in-
crement; it belongs to {NB, NM, NS, ZE, PP, PM,
PB .
In order to build up the supervision rules, some
transient responses are obtained and the influences
of each PID parameter on the dynamical perfor-
mances are evaluated. Then, three linguistic models
relating the fuzzy values of the PID parameters
with the fuzzy values of the performance character-
istics are built. They express the adjustments to be
applied to each PID parameter separately in order
to make the dynamical characteristics converge to
(5) their fuzzy value medium. Table 9 shows these in-
formations for the three tuning cases.
The next step consists of deriving the resulting
fuzzy tuning action to be applied independently on
each controller parameter so that the dynamical
126 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129

response converges globally to the reference re-
sponse. According to the various performances
chosen (the values of overshoot, rise time and stab-
ility factor), the different variations to be applied to
each PID parameter can be conflicting. Then, the
issue is to evaluate satisfactory increment values
that allow a global convergence of the three perfor-
mance characteristics towards their linguistic
values medium. To solve this compromise, an arith-
metic average is calculated over the different
actions for each parameter. All the informations
concerning the PID parameters tuning are pres-
ented in Table 10.
5.3. Results
The experiments are carried out on the motor-
alternator group. The results are compared with
those of classical PID control in order to emphasize
the improvement due to the supervisor.
The control signal belongs to [0V, 15V].
The PID parameters are initialized with the
Ziegler-Nichols method. The desired dynamical
response has the following characteristics: a rise
time of 36 ms (three sampling periods), an over-
shoot of 0.2 and a stability factor of 750. Table 11 is
the quantization matrix used for the designed fuzzy
supervisor. The reference signal is varying in order
to evaluate the PID parameters tuning ability of
the supervisor during the transients and the control
quality during the steady states.
Three simulations are performed. During the
first one, the PID controller is not supervised; dur-
ing the second one, the three PID parameters are
tuned on-line; during the third one, the propor-
tional and integral parameters are optimized. These
results are, respectively, shown in Figs. 12, 13 and
14. When no PID parameters tuning is done, the
rise time is 48 ms; see Fig. 12. The overshoot of the
first transient is about 0.5 rad/s, and the following
overshoots are rather important because of a non-
optimal control signal generation and the control
saturation. When the three PID parameters are
adapted, the control signal keeps on commuting

Table 9
Adjustments of the P I D parameters

T~-* PS PM PB O~ PS PM PB Sf~ PS PM PB

AKp NM ZE PM - NS ZE PB - PM ZE PB
ATI PS ZE NS - NM ZE PM - ZE ZE NS
A Td ZE ZE ZE - NB ZE PB - NB ZE PB

Table 10
Fuzzy supervision rules for the three PID parameters

Sf~T~.Ov---, PS.PS PS.PM PS.PB PM.PS PM.PM PM.PB PB.PS PB.PM PB.PB

AKp
PS ZE ZE PS ZE PS PM PS PM PB
PM NS NS ZE ZE ZE PS ZE PS PM
PB ZE ZE PM PS PS PM PM PM PB
AT~
PS ZE ZE PS NS ZE PS NS ZE ZE
PM ZE ZE PS NS ZE PS NS ZE ZE
PB NS ZE PS NS ZE ZE NM NS ZE
AT~
PS NM NS ZE NM NS ZE NM NS ZE
PM NS ZE ZE NS ZE ZE NS ZE ZE
PB ZE PS PM ZE PS PM ZE PS PM
 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129 127

because of the derivative term; see Figs. 13 and 15. specifications have been reached; see Figs. 14 and
It should be necessary to change the tuning strategy 15(a) and (b). The comparison between a PID con-
for this parameter. The results obtained with the trol and a supervised PI control points out the
fuzzy supervisor of the PI controller show that the advantage of using a fuzzy supervisor. The rise time

T a b l e 11
Q u a n t i z a t i o n m a t r i x o f the fuzzy s u p e r v i s o r

Q T~ O~ Sf AKp ATd ATi FS

- 6 - - - 1.8 - 0.0018 - 0.018 NB

- 4 - - - 1.2 - 0.0012 - 0.012 NM
- 2 - - 0.6 - 0.006 - 0.06 NS
0 - - 0 0 0 ZE
2 2 0.1 250 0.6 0.006 0.06 PS
4 3 0.2 750 1.2 - 0.0012 0.012 PS
6 4 0.3 1000 1.8 0.0018 0.018 PB

(a) (b)
fmdl$ (v)
0

2oo

Fig. 12. P I D c o n t r o l w i t h o u t s u p e r v i s i o n . (a) P r o c e s s o u t p u t . (b) C o n t r o l signal.

(a) (b)
rad~

iI0 IOOO 2(]00 ~ 4000 ~

Fig. 13. S u p e r v i s e d P I D c o n t r o l o f the D C m o t o r speed. (a) P r o c e s s o u t p u t . (b) C o n t r o l signal.

(a) (b)
(v)

1.

o :t
Q

Fig. 14. S u p e r v i s e d P I c o n t r o l of the D C m o t o r speed. (a) P r o c e s s o u t p u t . (b) C o n t r o l signal.

128 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129
(a)
J I
o ~000 2000 2~ ,tO00 $000
(c)
2
Fig. 15. The parameter tunings: (a) [AKp] and (b) [ATI] correspond to the two experiments with a supervisor, (c) [ATd] corresponds
only to the results of Fig. 13.
has decreased to 36 ms, the overshoot is 0.2 and the
stability factor is 750. The overshoot and osicilla-
tions are strongly decreased. This improvement is
principally due to the integral term tuning. Indeed,
it is possible to notice that some important changes
are applied on the integral time constant after the
third, fourth and fifth level of the reference signal,
which correspond to important overshoots when
no supervisor is used. In fact, the supervision rules
express that the overshoot is very sensitive to the
integral time constant variations; see Table 9.
Moreover, the rise time is decreased. The propor-
tional action is mainly responsible for this improve-
ment: the rise time is above all sensitive to the
proportional gain changes; see Table 9.
The simulation results show some interesting as-
pects of fuzzy supervision of PID controllers. One
advantage is that the user can specify a reference
dynamical model. The process is then controlled so
that its response converges globally to the desired
trajectory under more or less disturbed control
conditions.
The two combination techniques of PID and
fuzzy tools have been designed and tuned. How-
ever, it is not possible here to compare these two
techniques because the parameters values on the
DC motor experiments are different.
(b)
i,, I
-2
6000
4000 ~ 6000
6. Conclusions and perspectives
In this work, fuzzy logic has been used in differ-
ent control structures, direct control and super-
vision. The comparison between fuzzy control and
PID control emphasizes the facts that the fuzzy PD
controller is more interesting for the transient re-
sponses, and it is worse during the steady state.
This result can be improved with a fuzzy controller
by introducing an integral action; moreover, the
closed-loop performances can be improved if an
auto-tuning method of the fuzzy controller para-
meters (for example of the rule base) is used.
However, in order to combine the advantages of
each techniques (mainly because PID controllers
are reliable and used widely), a parallel control
structure commuting between a PID and a fuzzy
controller has been proposed. It was possible to
reach good performances during the transient and
the steady state because of the contribution of each
type of controllers. The difficult point for the design
of this structure is the fuzzy switching logic between
the two algorithms; some more studies are now
performed on this problem in order to improve this
control structure.
In order to generate a dynamical control law,
and to state more precisely the control objectives,
 R. Ketata et al. / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 71 (1995) 113-129
another combination of classical and fuzzy tech-
niques is considered. In the last structure con-
sidered, the fuzzy logic is used for supervision. The
goal is to improve the closed-loop performances
obtained with a PID controller by tuning its
parameters. It has been possible to reach some
user-specified goals for a motor speed control. The
results obtained are encouraging; however, it is
necessary to study further, specially for the derivat-
ive parameter tuning. At the present time, PID
fuzzy supervisor of the first type (adaptation of the
controller parameters depending on the location in
the phase plane at each sampling time) is now
considered for a combination of the two sorts of
supervisor in order to improve their efficiency.
Moreover, some experimental comparison tests
of the two proposed combination techniques could
be performed. Globally, the obtained results em-
phasize the fact that fuzzy techniques can effectively
be used to enhance conventional control methods,
even though specific points have to be examined
further.
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