Proceedings of the IEEE
International Conference on Automation and Logistics
August 18 - 21, 2007, Jinan, China
The Application of Immune Genetic Algorithm in PID
Parameter Optimization for Level Control System
Chengwei Li
School of Electrical Engineering and Automation
Harbin Institute of Technology University
Harbin, Hei longjiang Province, China
chengweili@hit.edu.cn
Abstract - This work discusses the use of an Evolvable
Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller that consists of
an evolvable PID controller hardware whose gains can be set by
Evolutionary Computation techniques, such as Genetic
Algorithms in water level control system. Due to PID controllers'
widespread use in industry, tuning procedures for them are
always a topic of interest. An evolutionary immune inspired
algorithm, named Immune Genetic Algorithm (IGA), is used for
tuning the controller so that closed-loop step response
specifications are satisfied. Experiments with different processes
indicate that the gains obtained through Immune Genetic
Algorithm (IGA) may provide better responses than those
obtained by the classical Ziegler-Nichols method. The PID
Controller based on IGA is realized by the configuration
software and LabVIEW. The experiment results show that the
water level controlled by the PID controller can response fast and
reach the stable state quickly in comparison with that controlled
by the conventional PID controller.
Index Terms - PID control, Immune Genetic Algorithms
(IGA), water level control, cascade control.
I. INTRODUCTION
The interest in the use of Evolutionary Computation
techniques, such as Evolvable Hardware [1][2][3], Genetic
Algorithms [4] and Genetic Programming [5], in the design of
intelligent and flexible controllers has shown a considerable
increase lately. In the last decades, PID controllers have been
successfully applied to many different problems in the control
field and have achieved valuable results [6]. Due to their
widespread use in industry, especially in water level control
system, tuning procedures for PID controllers are always a
topic of interest [6]. Most level control systems are hysteretic,
inertial and nonlinear. Most traditional tuning methods could
not provide good responses. With the development of the
Hardware and computation techniques, a PID controller
consists of a PID controller hardware whose gains can be set
by Evolutionary Computation techniques is widespread
embedded in industry instruments. Using evolvable algorithm
to optimize the parameter of PID controller has become more
easier than before. The main objective of this work is to
investigate the use of an Immune Genetic Algorithm (IGA) in
the tuning of PID controllers for water level control system.
Immune Genetic Algorithm is inspired in natural
immunological mechanisms. This technique is basically a
procedure of adaptive and parallel search [7], [8]. The Immune
1-4244-1531-4/07/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE.
Jiandong Lian
School of Electrical Engineering and Automation
Harbin Institute of Technology University
Harbin, Hei longjiang Province, China
Jiandong030@163.com
Genetic Algorithm searches for the controller gains Kp
(proportional), TI (integral) and TD (derivative or differential)
so that specifications for the closed-loop step response are
met.
In the following section basic concepts and modeling of
the PID controller and water level control system are
presented. Section 3 presents the tuning procedure, based on
the Immune Genetic Algorithm that has been used.
Experimental results and comparisons with classical
Ziegler-Nichols and ISE (ISTE, IST2E) based tuning methods
are shown in section 5. Conclusions follow in section 6.
II. EVOLVABLE PID CONTROLLERS AND WATER LEVEL
CONTROL SYSTEM
An Evolvable PID Controller (Figure 1) consists of a
PID controller hardware whose gains KP, TI and TD can be set
by Evolutionary Computation techniques. The most common
hardware implementations of PID controllers rely on
microprocessors, but pure analog implementations also exist.
In evolvable PID controller an evolutionary algorithm sets the
gains to the PID controller hardware so that design
requirements are satisfied. This procedure may be used
whatever the form of implementation. An evolutionary
immune inspired algorithm, named Immune Genetic
Algorithm (IGA), is used for tuning the controller. By using
this procedure, designers need only specify the desired closed
loop response. This evolutionary nature entitles the controller
to self-adaptations, which are important in applications where
controllers need to operate for long periods in harsh
environments.
Figure 1. Evolvable PID Controller Diagram
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The block diagram shown in Figure 2 illustrates a closed-loop
system with a PID controller in the direct path, which is the
usual connection.

Figure 2. PID control of a plant

Where:
U ( s) K Figure 3. Flow chart of water level control system
GC (s) = = KP + i + Kd s (1)
E (s ) s III. IMMUNE GENETIC ALGORITHM (IGA)
Y ( s) GC ( s)G ( s) The Immune Genetic Algorithm describes the basic
Gg ( s) = = (2)
R( s) 1 + GC ( s)G ( s) features of an adaptive immune response to an antigenic
stimulus and the flow chart is summarized in Figure 4.
The tuning of a PID controller consists of selecting the
Receive the Antigen
appropriate gains KP, TI and TD so that performance
specifications are met. By Ziegler-Nichols's method [9], those
gains are obtained through experiments with the process under Produce the original
Evolve
antibody
control. Memory cell

Water control system is widespread in Process control Compute the fitness value
and diversity value
area; the flow chart of the system is summarized in figure 3.
this system is a double- tanks water level control system Conditions
which is based on Foundation Fieldbus. All the transmitters compare
and controllers are fit FF standard and connect on Foundation
Field bus (FF). All data on Field bus is collected by data
acquisition Card from NI. The logic connection between Whether or not the convergent Y
transmitters, PID controllers is configured by Configuration criterion is satisfied?
Software. In this system, the water in reservoir (E-3) is Output
pumped up to tank E-1 by the water pump. The stream in to N
tank E-2 is controlled by adjustment. The water level in all Produce the antibody
tanks will be real time measured by water level transmitters (crossover,mutation) END
(I-1 and I-2). The main goal is make the water level in tank
E-2 remained stable. In this system, because of the hysteretic Stimulation and suppression
and inertial, it is very difficult for conventional PID controller of antibody
to make the system has a good control effect. In order to
improve the performance of the system, Evolvable PID Update antibody
Controller will used in this system. This system is a double (base on Concentration)
tank system. In order to make the system has a good dynamic
Figure 4 . Immune Genetic Algorithm flow chart
performance; cascade control will be used in this system.
Minor loop in this system will dispel the disturbance which is There are six steps in IGA. If IGA is compared with the
acting on main loop. The water level in tank E-2 is main general searching algorithm for solving optimization
adjust parameter; water level in tank E-1 is auxiliary problems, the antigen and the antibody correspond to the
parameter. object value and the probable solution to the optimization
problems:
Step 1 Inputting the object value and various constraint s of
the particular optimization problem as the antigen in IGA
Step 2 Producing the original antibody in the space of solution
by random method.

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Step 3 Computing the affinity value of the antibody. Where:
Step 4 Performing crossover and mutation operations. K’Pi, KPi : B cells
Step 5 Using the rule of renovating the group and producing μ (0,1) : Gaussian operator
the next antibody.
The Immune Genetic Algorithm searches for the best
Step 6 If the number of iterations arrives at a given threshold, individual (controller) maximizing the affinity (between 0 and
or the convergence criteria are satisfied, the procedure stops. 1). Desired and actual responses for a given system are shown
Otherwise return to step. in Figure 5.
IV. IGA FOR PID TUNING
The implementation of the tuning procedure of a PID
controller through the Immune Genetic Algorithm starts with
the definition of the antibody representation. The antibody is
formed by three real numbers that characterize the individual
to be evaluated and that correspond to the three gains (Kp, Ti
and Td) to be adjusted in order to achieve a satisfactory
behavior.
Since the objective is to minimize the error between the
set point (desired output) and the plant output (actual output),
In order to make control system stabilize, accuracy, rapid, and Figure 5. Desired and actual responses
have good transient characteristic, the target function and
affinity function have to be defined base on “Integral The observation interval is divided into n samples; the error
absolute-error” (IAE) Rule: for each sample is calculated by (6) and entered into (5). The
maximization of (5), performed by the IGA by adjusting the
1 PID gains, will ensure that the actual output is as close as
affinity = (3)
J+A possible to the desired one.
∞
J = ³ [ w1 e(t ) + w2u 2 (t ) + w4 e(t ) ]dt + w3 ⋅ tu (4) V. EXPERIMENTS
0
Where: In order to verify the performance of IGA, a simulation
was carried out in MATLAB platform. After the simulation in
A: a constant which is bigger than 0 MATLAB, a Monitoring Software was also developed in
LabVIEW platform in order to optimizing the parameters of
1, 2, 3, 4: constants
the PID controllers and monitoring the operation of water
tu: rise time level control system.
In crossover operation, “Two-point Crisscross A. Simulation in MATLAB
Algorithm” will be used in the procedure. At the beginning of The main program of IGA was written in MATLAB 7.1,
the operation, the program will choose a random the gains which provided by IGA and other methods are
number rk ∈ [ 0,1] which is compared with cross operator Pc. simulated in SIMULINK. The block diagram of simulate
control system which is used in SIMULINK is presented in
r <p
If k c , the crossover operation will begin. The operation Figure 6.
will proceed base on the two formulas described by Eq. 5:
X ' = rX + (1 − r )Y
(5)
Y ' = (1 − r ) X + rY
Where:
X, Y: father generation of the B cell
X’, Y’: child generation of the B cell
r: random number (between 0 and 1).
The mutation operation is base on “Gaussian mutation”. The
operation on all B cells will proceed base on the formula Figure 6. The block diagram of simulate control system
described by Eq. 6:
The IGA has been configured as:
K Pi' = K Pi + a affinity ⋅ μ (0,1) (6)

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Sampling time: 0.2s; B. Experiment in water level control system
After the simulation in MATLAB, the main program of
Generations (max): 100;
IGA was transplanted to LabVIEW platform, a monitoring
Population: 30; software with parameter optimizing function and monitoring
function was developed. The interface of monitoring software
Crossover rate: 0.5
was listed in below:
Hyper mutation rate: 0.05
w1Ј0.999Δw2Ј0.001Δw3Ј2.0Δw4Ј100
The experiment with a second inertia increases delay
system has been performed for the evaluation of the tuning
procedure. In the experiment, results were compared with the
original values obtained through the classical Ziegler-Nichols
(Z-N) method, and through ISE (ISTE, IST2E) method. The
transfer function is described by Eq. 7:
1
G( s) = e − 0.5s (7)
( s + 1) 2
The responses with the application of the IGA are presented in
Figure 7, which also shows results obtained with Z-N, with
Figure 8. Interface of operation monitoring block
the ISE (ISTE, IST2E) technique. In this experiment, Z-N
rules provide initial values for the gains; adjustments to those
gains are performed there after.

Figure 9. Interface of parameter optimizing block

Before parameter optimizing, the transfer function must

be provided for IGA to determine the Fitness function.
Figure 7. Closed-loop step response for G(s) Through system identification, the transfer function of water
level system is described by Eq. 8
It can be seen in Figure 7 that the straight application of Z-N
rules provided gain values which led to a poor behavior. The 2.8
performance of ISE (ISTE, IST2E) is better than Z-N method,
G (s) = e − 24 s (8)
955.1s + 1
but remained poorer than that obtained with the IGA as a gain
tuner. Gain values obtained with each of the techniques for the The gain values obtained with IGA is: KP=89.4428,
control of the plant are shown in Table I. KI=0.3177, KD=3.2649. The results provided by IGA are also
be input into the control system through Configuration
Table I
PID CONTROLLER GAINS FOR G(S) Software. In this experiment, the water level of tank E-2 was
Kp TI TD  Ts(s) set to 15.0 cm. The optimizing result provided by IGA
Z-N 3.3711 2.0846 1.3629 5.65s 44.24% algorithm was input into the PID controller which is
ISE 3.2028 1.2416 1.4650 4.00s 26.48% embedded in water level transmitter I-1. The response of the
ISTE 3.1844 1.0412 1.1145 7.35s 27.28% system is listed in below.
IST2E 2.9842 0.9660 0.8723 8s 26.42%
IGA 2.8270 1.3466 1.5371 5.2s 7.08%

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 Figure 10. Closed-loop step response for G(s)
In Fig. 10 we can see the response of the real water level
control system is in accord with the simulation. The overshoot
in this process is only 2%.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
This work evaluated the performance of an Evolvable
PID controller through a series of experiments, in order to
investigate the applicability of the Immune Genetic Algorithm
to the automatic tuning of PID controllers. Satisfactory
closed-loop step responses were obtained for the plant tested,
comparing favorably to those obtained with the classical Z-N
method. There was no need for further manual adjustments to
the PID gains when automatic tuning was employed. The
automatic procedure was even capable of providing gain
values where the classical method could not be applied.

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