Real Time Implementation of Model Reference Adaptive Controller for a Conical Tank

Nonlinear process control is a difficult task in process industries. Conical tank level control is one among them. Real processes often exhibits nonlinear behavior, time variance and delays between inputs and outputs. This paper aims at implementing an adaptive control algorithm for a conical tank system. System identification of the non-linear process is done using black box modelling and found to be first order plus dead time (FOPDT) model. Here Proportional integral (PI) controller based on Ziegler Nichols (ZN) method is designed initially and the results are compared with model reference adaptive controller (MRAC).The real time implementation of process is done in LabVIEW using NI DAQ (BNC 2120). Better controller performance and error can be minimized by using MRAC than that of the ZN tuned PI controller.