Apparatus to optimize industrial control by maximizing time derivative of control parameter

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING AN INDUSTRIAL INSTALLATION HAVING AT LEAST ONE SIGNIFICANT TIME CONSTANT, THE PERFORMANCE OF SAID INSTALLATION DEPENDING ON ACTION QUANTITIES CAPABLE OF BEING VARIED INDEPENDENTLY ONE AFTER THE OTHER BY CORRESPONDING ACTUATORS AND THE PERFORMANCE OF SAID INSTALLATION BEING DEFINED BY A FIRST SIGNAL REPRESENTING THE INSTANTANEOUS VALUE OF AN OPERATING CRITERION AND WHICH FIRST SIGNAL IS A FUNCTION OF AT LEAST ONE PHYSICAL QUANTITY CONTINUOUSLY MEASURED IN SAID INSTALLATION BY A CORRESPONDING ONE OF AT LEAST ONE TRANSDUCER, SAID APPARATUS HAVING TO BRING AND MAINTAIN DYNAMICALLY SAID INSTALLATION TO OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE, DEFINED BY SAID OPERATION CRITERION REACHING A MAXIMUM VALUE, AND SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING: (A) A COMPUTING MEMBER SELECTED WITH SAID AT LEAST ONE TRANSDUCER AND FED SAID FIRST SIGNAL AND ARRANGED TO GENERATE A SECOND SIGNAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE INSTANTANEOUS VALUE OF THE TIME-DERIVATIVE OF ORDER N OF SAID FIRST SIGNAL WHERE N IS EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF SAID SIGNIFICANT TIME CONSTANTS; (B) A CORRECTING MEMBER FOR GENERATING A CORRECTION SIGNAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RATE OF VARIATION OF SAID ACTION QUANTITY; (C) A SWITCHING MEMBER ARRANGED FOR REVERSING THE SIGN OF SAID CORRECTION SIGNAL AT SWITCHING INSTANTS DEFINED BY A SWITCHING LAW BASED UPON HAVING SAID CORRECTION SIGNAL MAXIMIZE THE MAGNITUDE OF SAID TIME-DERIVATE OR ORDER N PROGRESSIVELY; (D) A SELECTING MEMBER ARRANGED TO ROUTE SAID CORRECTION SIGNAL WITH ITS SIGN SUCCESSIVELY IN DIFFERENT CHANNELS EACH CORRESPONDING TO ONE OF SAID ACTUATORS, WITH THE COMMUTATION FROM ONE CHANNEL TO ANOTHER BEING OPERATED AT DEFINED SELECTION MOMENTS; AND (E) A PLURALITY OF INTEGRATING MEMBERS EACH IN ONE OF SAID CHANNELS AND ARRANGED TO GENERATE THE TIMEINTEGRAL OF SAID CORRECTION SIGNAL AND APPLY SAID INTEGRATED SIGNAL TO THE CORRESPONDING ACTUATOR; WHEREBY SAID APPARATUS BRINGS SAID SECOND SIGNAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE TIME-DERIVATIVE OF ORDER N OF THE OPERATING CRITERION TOWARD MAXIMUM VALUE AND MAINTAINS THIS MAXIMUM IN ORDER TO HAVE THE OPERATING CRITERION ITSELF DYNAMICALLY BROUGHT TOWARD A MAXIMUM VALUE CORRESPONDING TO THE OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE OF SAID INSTALLATION AND MAINTAINED AT THE LATTER MAXIMUM.