Advanced control unleashed

An American Technical Publishers product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Dec 18, 2002

A new book from the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society is the first to present the industrially proven advanced process control methods to ordinary engineers working in industry.

A new book from the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society, "Advanced control unleashed: plant performance management for optimum benefit", is the first book to present the industrially proven advanced process control methods to ordinary engineers working in industry.

Advanced process control seeks to discover, incorporate, and exploit knowledge about raw materials, process, product, equipment, instrumentation, and final elements.

The advent of powerful and friendly software has moved advanced process control from the realm of consultants into the arena of the average process control engineer.

There is now an opportunity for the engineers closest to the process and daily operations to take a much more active role in the development and support of APC applications.

The greater understanding, support, and involvement of onsite engineers can increase the success rate, the on-stream time, and the longevity of an APC application.

This book provides a basis for assessing the benefits of advanced control and focuses on the practice and applications, backed up by enough theory, to ensure a deeper understanding of advanced process control.

"Advanced control unleashed" covers auto tuning, model predictive control, optimisation, estimators, neural networks, fuzzy control, simulators, expert systems, diagnostics, and performance assessment.

Each chapter is organised into three sections: practice, application, and theory, which provide practical information that a user can readily explore and reference in order to start and complete a successful implementation.

Lists, hints, rules of thumb, and concise explanations are employed to save the reader time and to provide both a better perspective on the whole picture and an improved ability to drill down to obtain specific implementation guidance.

Unique to this book is a CD with practical design, simulation, and implementation examples of technologies discussed in the book.

The examples demonstrate by means of a step-by-step procedure and a detailed dynamic process model, how to configure, test, and run each APC application.

The CD also contains overviews by the authors and video demonstrations that make key examples in the book come alive, and it provides configuration and case files for hands-on experience and PowerPoint files suitable for lectures on each unit.

This book, with its appendices and CD, should enable the average process engineer to develop a better understanding of the representative principles and techniques of APC.

The knowledge will be helpful in setting objectives, evaluating potential APC opportunities, and applying the most appropriate APC technologies.

"Advanced control unleashed" was written by four seasoned practitioners of control, having jointly more than 100 years of real industrial experience in the development and use of advanced process control.

Readers are encouraged to contact the authors at their email addresses if they have any questions about the use of the book, exercises, demos, slides, or APC tools described.

All royalties of the book will be given directly to universities, consortia, and educational programs to promote and enhance the development and use of advanced process control.

This book is a valuable guide for both experienced engineers as well as newcomers to advanced control.

It will be a good companion for every engineer practising advanced control.

"Advanced control unleashed" is available through American Technical Publishers for GBP 78.00.