Autotuning process controller with improved load disturbance rejection

This paper presents an autotuning process controller aimed at providing efficient rejection of load disturbances in a class of situations that are quite typical in process control, and not easy to treat with most standard autotuning controllers, especially when not only the duration of the load disturbance response, but also the peak deviation of the controlled variable is an issue. The regulator structure is not fixed a priori; this is a peculiarity with respect to the main research stream on autotuning regulators, that refers essentially to fixed-structure (PID) regulators. Both simulation and laboratory examples are reported, to show the advantages of the proposed autotuning controller.