An intelligent approach to integrated optimization and control of textile processes

This paper introduces an effective method to integrate optimization and control of major plant processes with strong couplings between them. The proposed integration philosophy that consists of the cause-effect relation decides upon control setpoints for the individual processes by optimizing a global objective function which aims at improving process yield. The objective is to maximize productivity and, at the same time, reduce defects in each of the subsequent operations. A textile plant is considered as a testbed and three processes-warping, slashing and weaving, are employed to illustrate the feasibility of the approach. The supervisory level of the control architecture is intended to continuously improve the control setpoints depending upon feedback information from the weave room, slasher operator and warping data.