Assessment of tuning of PI controllers for self-regulating processes

In this paper a method for the performance assessment of Proportional-Integral (PI) controllersfor single-input single-output (SISO) self-regulating processes is proposed. In particular, the effectiveness of the tuning of the controller with respect to its load disturbance rejection performances is determined by evaluating simultaneously different simple indexes that are calculated by considering only the manipulated variable and process output signals when an abrupt load disturbance occurs on the process. Thus, no model of the process is required. As a result, guidelines on how to improve the controller tuning are given. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of themethod in a process monitoring framework.