Economic oriented stochastic optimization in process control using Taguchi’s method

The optimal operating region of complex production systems is situated close to process constraints related to quality or safety requirements. Higher profit can be realized only by assuring a relatively low frequency of violation of these constraints. We defined a Taguchi-type loss function to aggregate these constraints, target values, and desired ranges of product quality. We evaluate this loss function by Monte-Carlo simulation to handle the stochastic nature of the process and apply the gradient-free Mesh Adaptive Direct Search algorithm to optimize the resulted robust cost function. This optimization scheme is applied to determine the optimal set-point values of control loops with respect to pre-determined risk levels, uncertainties and costs of violation of process constraints. The concept is illustrated by a well-known benchmark problem related to the control of a linear dynamical system and the model predictive control of a more complex nonlinear polymerization process. The application examples illustrate that the loss function of Taguchi is an ideal tool to represent performance requirements of control loops and the proposed Monte-Carlo simulation based optimization scheme is effective to find the optimal operating regions of controlled processes.