Automatic Testing of PI(D) Autotuners

Abstract

This paper presents a software tool for the automatic testing of PI(D) autotuners. The described tool was created in the REXYGEN system. The measured data were subsequently processed in MATLAB. The PID_Compact controller from global automation producer Siemens and PIDMA controller from Czech SME company REX Controls were tested. The autotuning methods were compared on a subset of well-known PI(D) control benchmarks by K. J. Åström and T. Hägglund. The presented results show the number of failed tuning experiments or the number of stable and unstable closed-loops for both controllers. Furthermore, the time of tuning experiments and frequency quality indices are compared. According to the results, the PIDMA autotuner significantly outperforms the Siemens, and the stability margins also prove the robustness of PIDMA.