Model-Based PI(D) Autotuning

This chapter deals with Model-Based AutoTuning (MBAT). Besides describing the main flow and phases of such a tuning procedure, the main advantages of the underlying methodological approach are evidenced, namely the availability of a parametric process model to simulate the loop and assess its behaviour and characteristics such as performance and robustness, the possibility of stipulating the control specifications with respect to the said model, and tuning parameters’ interpretability. In the light of such an organisation, some MBAT methods are presented, and a minimal taxonomy of them is suggested. The chapter also highlights the major problems connected with MBAT, i.e., the interplay between the model parameterisation procedure and the tuning results—for which technological limitations typically prevent the use of results from the identification for control domain—and the limitations posed by the parametric approach, essentially to the representation of model error and uncertainty in view of a robustness analysis. Some possible future developments and perspectives are finally outlined.