The Role of Artificial Intelligence Systems in Process Control

Computer science has opened up a new era in which brainpower is augmented by electronics the way musclepower was amplified by the machines of the Industrial Revolution (5). Process control technology has changed dramatically over the past three decades, evolving from Salazar´s supervisory set point and direct digital control to the microprocessor based distributed systems in common use today. The emergence of artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems is now moving state-of-the-art one step further towards the usage of expert systems to enhance the monitoring and control of both batch and continuous processes. There has been an upsurge of A.I. activity in the last several years. This paper outlines some of that activity, the highlights of A.I. systems, the present state of process control technology, the communication structure required for integrating A.I. systems with distributed control systems and the potential applications of expert systems in process control.