Application of a GA-Optimized NNARX controller to nonlinear chemical and biochemical processes

Chemical and biochemical processes generally suffer from extreme nonlinearities with respect to internal states, manipulated variables, and also disturbances. These processes have always received special technical and scientific attention due to their importance as the means of large-scale production of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and biologically active agents. In this work, a general-purpose genetic algorithm (GA)-optimized neural network (NNARX) controller is introduced, which offers a very simple but efficient design. First, the proof of the controller stability is presented, which indicates that the controller is bounded-input bounded-output (BIBO) stable under simple conditions. Then the controller was tested for setpoint tracking, handling modeling error, and disturbance rejection on two nonlinear processes that is, a continuous fermentation and a continuous pH neutralization process. Compared to a conventional proportional-integral (PI) controller, the results indicated better performance of the controller for setpoint tracking and acceptable action for disturbance rejection. Hence, the GA-optimized NNARX controller can be implemented for a variety of nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems with minimal a-priori information of the process and the controller structure.