Development of fuzzy controller prototype integrated with IoT

Abstract

The demand for artificial intelligent controllers to replace classic analogues has been increasing due to the growing interest of society and industries in the development of sustainable processes and industry 4.0 concepts. Among the classic controllers being studied in chemical engineering graduation is the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID), one of the most used throughout the industry. However, the fourth industrial revolution has required new skills from technical and engineering teams, demanding greater precision from controllers, adaptation to dynamic processes and integration with IoT (Internet of Things). In this sense, this project intends to use a micro controller, a fuzzy control logic, a type of artificial intelligence that mimics human decision making, to control the heating speed of a process. It will be developed a robust controller capable of manipulating the electric power of a heating system and controlling the temperature rise rate. Temperature is one of the most important variables in physical, chemical and biotechnological processes. In addition to changing the phases of materials, temperature interferes with the speed of reactions, conversions, the specificity of products and also the safety of processes. Several controllers act directly on the temperature and do it very efficiently. However, there are few devices that manage to adequately control the heating speed, as it presents a dynamic that makes it difficult to tune the classic controllers. In most cases, the temperature is controlled by a thermostat, i.e. an on/off system. More accurate controllers still use the PID to keep the temperature stabilized. However, these controllers present difficulties in dynamic processes. The solution of this project consists in implementing a heating ramp control (temperature speed) using Fuzzy logic to manipulate the electric power of a heating system using a prototyping micro controller. Therefore, the project must: i) assemble the prototype: heating system, power circuit and microcontroller; ii) develop the fuzzy controller in C++ language; iii) implement the controller in a free hardware electronic prototyping platform; iv) make monitoring program and integration with IoT; v) test and calibrate the control parameters observing the stability of the controlled variable (heating speed) and the manipulated variable (electrical power); This technological solution increases the community's accessibility to modern controllers, presents an option to nationalize technology and train human resources.