A design algorithm using external perturbation to improve Iterative Feedback Tuning convergence

Iterative Feedback Tuning constitutes an attractive control loop tuning method for processes in the absence of process insight. It is a purely data driven approach for optimization of the loop performance. The standard formulation ensures an unbiased estimate of the loop performance cost function gradient, which is used in a search algorithm for minimizing the performance cost. A slow rate of convergence of the tuning method is often experienced when tuning for disturbance rejection. This is due to a poor signal to noise ratio in the process data. A method is proposed for increasing the data information content by introducing an optimal perturbation signal in the tuning algorithm. The theoretical analysis is supported by a simulation example where the proposed method is compared to an existing method for acceleration of the convergence by use of optimal prefilters.