Internet-based monitoring and control of fuzzy-controlled inverter system

Programmable logic controller (PLC) or standalone controller is generally applied to inverter-controlled drives, which have been widely used for some specific applications, e.g. adjustable speed drives (ASD). However, it is very difficult to perform high-level operations for intelligent control, e.g. fuzzy control, using PLC, which in general performs only sequential logic and some simple operations. Moreover, complicated data format of each standalone controller coming from different vendors, creates very challenging problems for system integration. Due to the rapid growth of the Internet, system integration can be easily realized without solving the complicated data format issue among sub-systems. The objective of this paper is to introduce the development of an Internet-based monitoring and control of fuzzy-controlled inverter system, which is potentially applied to an air-conditioning system. Based upon the powerful computation capability of server, a fuzzy logic controller can be realized, and thereby overcoming the modeling uncertainty of inverter-controlled plants. Moreover, the Internet-based system also provides data sharing and remote monitoring functions. Some experimental results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the system.