Safety-Aware Cascade Controller Tuning Using Constrained Bayesian Optimization

This article presents an automated, model-free, data-driven method for the safe tuning of PID cascade controller gains based on Bayesian optimization. The optimization objective is composed of data-driven performance metrics and modeled using Gaussian processes. The safety requirement is imposed via a barrier-like term in the objective, which is introduced to account for operational changes in the system. We further introduce a data-driven constraint that captures the stability requirements from system data. Numerical evaluation shows that the proposed approach outperforms relay feedback autotuning and quickly converges to the global optimum, thanks to a tailored stopping criterion. We demonstrate the performance of the method through simulations and experiments. For experimental implementation, in addition to the introduced safety constraint, we integrate a method for automatic detection of the critical gains and extend the optimization objective with a penalty depending on the proximity of the current candidate points to the critical gains. The resulting automated tuning method optimizes system performance while ensuring stability and standardization.