Reliable process control with a supervisory expert system

An expert supervisory control system with object-based knowledge representation and rule-based reasoning has been developed such that its general process and control system knowledge forms a core knowledge base which can be used as primitives for rapid prototyping of intelligent control systems for various chemical processes. The expert system assesses process behavior checks for process faults and provides information to the control system for improved process control. An application prototype of the expert system has been developed for retuning of model-based controllers to improve the controlled behavior of a packed-bed chemical reactor system. Specific functions of the MOBECS (model-object-based expert control system) prototype include process fault diagnosis control system performance monitoring and troubleshooting, controller tuning, and control system restructuring