Multiple nonlinear parameter estimation using PI feedback control

Nonlinear parameters often need to be estimated during the building of chem ical process models. To accomplish this, many techniques are available. Thi s paper discusses an alternative view to parameter estimation, where the co ncept of PI feedback control is used to estimate model parameters. The appr oach can be used for multiple parameter estimation problems if the paramete rs can be determined independently. In addition, similarities with Kalman f iltering are illustrated. Both approaches are applied and compared in multi ple parameter estimation problems. Furthermore, the PI controller approach is applied in parameter estimation for an experimental batch distillation s etup. It is shown that the PI controller approach performs comparably to Ka lman filtering, but is much easier to set up. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd . All rights reserved.