A computer method and apparatus of online automated model identification of multivariable processes is disclosed. The method and apparatus carries out automatically all the four basic steps of industrial
process identification: 1) identification test
signal design and generation, 2) identification
plant test, 3) model identification and 4)
model validation. During the automated
plant test, process models will be automatically generated at a given time interval, for example,
every hour, or
on demand; the ongoing test can be automatically adjusted to meet the process constraints and to improve the
data quality.
Plant test can be in open loop operation, closed-loop operations or partly open loop and partly closed-loop. In a (partial) closed-loop
plant test, any type of controller can be used which include proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers and any industrial model
predictive controller (MPC). The obtained process models can be used as the model in advanced process controllers such as
model predictive control (MPC) and linear
robust control; they can also be used as inferential models or soft sensors in prediction product qualities. The apparatus can be used in new MPC controller commissioning as well as in MPC controller maintenance.