A Tuning Method of Active Disturbance Rejection Control for a Class of High-Order Processes

This paper aims to propose a quantitative tuning method for active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) that controls the K/(Ts + 1)
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-type high-order processes. An asymptote in the Nyquist curve has been observed for the first time and its mathematical expression has been deduced. An asymptote condition is provided in order to derive a parameter tuning rule under the sensitivity constraint. Although this proposed tuning rule is originally designed for a certain type of high-order processes, it can be extended to other types processes that can be approximated into the form of K/(Ts + 1)
ⁿ
. Comparisons with different PID control strategies have been conducted for a range of cases to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed tuning method. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed tuning rule is experimentally verified on water tank system that exhibits high-order dynamics. Field tests on the superheater steam temperature control of a circulating fluidized bed power plant further demonstrate its potential for applications in complex industrial processes.