Adaptive Simmering Control for Domestic Induction Cookers

The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we aim at investigating the potentials of reset observers (ReOs) applied to process control. Second, we aim to overcome the existing performance limitations of the temperature control in domestic cookers. To this end, we present an adaptive simmering control for induction cookers, whose parameters are updated online, depending on the estimates provided by a multiple-model ReO (MMReO). This new observer results in extending the idea of multiple models to the state observer framework. The MMReO consists of a reinitialized ReO and of multiple fixed identification models. The resultant control scheme satisfies the user requirements such as quick heating up, accurate temperature control, and fast disturbance rejection, outperforming previous results. Moreover, the proposed control scheme reduces energy consumption, and consequently, it can increase the efficiency of the whole cooking process. Additionally, a fixed robust quantitative feedback theory (QFT)-based controller is designed, and it is also used for comparison purposes. Several verification tests are carried out in real induction hobs to emphasize the effectiveness of our proposal compared with the QFT-based controller.