Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133

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Control of a otation column using fuzzy logic inference

M. Teresa Carvalho∗ , Fernando Durão
CVRM, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1000-049 Lisboa, Portugal

Received 7 July 2000; received in revised form 12 January 2001; accepted 24 January 2001

Abstract
This paper describes a fuzzy controller that was developed for the control, in real time, of three main variables of the
column otation process. Column otation is a solid–solid separation process based on the physical and chemical properties
of mineral particle surfaces. It is applied to the concentration of low grade ores and to ores that require very 1ne grinding to
achieve mineral liberation. The economic exploitation of the process, guaranteeing the desired 1nal product characteristics
from a feed of varying composition, requires a stable operation, which is accomplished through the automatic control of some
key process variables. The di4culties encountered in the development of process controllers for this process are related to
the lack of reliable measuring devices for the process variables involved, with the non-existence of mathematical dynamical
models that can be used in a controller synthesis and with its non-linear and time-varying behaviour. The process and the
problems related with its control are brie y explained and the main reasons for fuzzy logic control application are discussed.
The real time control system and the fuzzy controller structure and parameters are presented. A general overview of the pilot
plant where the experimental work was performed is presented. Finally, results of the experimental work, carried out with
the two-phase system (air and water), are summarised and the conclusions are drawn.
c 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All
rights reserved.

Keywords: Fuzzy inference systems; Fuzzy control; Process control; Column otation; Real time control

1. Introduction that make one (or more) mineral(s) hydrophobic. The

Column otation is a widely used process in the
concentration of low grade and 1nely disseminated
ores and also in recycling and solvent extraction
[8,11,15]. Concentration by otation is achieved by
assuring adequate chemical and hydrodynamic con-
ditions. The 1rst ones are achieved by the condition-
ing of the pulp with appropriate chemical reagents
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: teresa.carvalho@ist.utl.pt (M.T. Carvalho).
proper hydrodynamic conditions are achieved assur-
ing that the hydrophobic particles contact and ad-
here to air bubbles and allowing the aggregates air
bubbles=hydrophobic particles to rise to the pulp sur-
face and form a froth.
Flotation columns are long vertical vessels that are
continuously fed with a pulp with 15– 40% solids by
weight, of 1ne (10–100
m) solid particles to be sepa-
rated (Fig. 1). Air is continuously injected to the pulp
through a sparger at the bottom of the column, giv-
ing rise to the formation of a swarm of air bubbles.

0165-0114/02/$ - see front matter  c 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 5 - 0 1 1 4 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 4 8 - 3
122 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of column otation.
Particles previously rendered hydrophobic, after col-
lision with the air bubbles, adhere to them and move
upwards to the top of the column where they are recov-
ered as the column over5ow or oated product. Hy-
drophilic particles settle down in the pulp that move
downwards to the bottom leaving the column as an
under5ow.
During normal operation two distinct zones can be
identi1ed inside the column: collection zone where the
hydrophobic particles are collected by the air bubbles
and the froth zone, constituted mainly by air (60–
90%) and collected particles [8].
The formation and maintenance of a deep froth col-
umn with an adequate height is required for good per-
formance. The addition of fresh wash water on the top
of the column allows the cleaning of the froth zone
by drainage of the hydrophilic particles entrained in
the air bubbles=hydrophobic particles aggregates. The
cleaning action takes place when it is assured a down-
ward ow of wash water passing through the froth
zone (designated by bias water).
The ultimate goal of the column otation control is
to achieve the economic optimum combination of the
desired mineral grade (purity) and recovery in the 1nal
product from a feed of varying composition. However,
grade and recovery, are not usually measured on-line:
recovery is computed from grade measurements and
on-line grade measurement is very expensive, often
inaccurate and sometimes, as in the case of light el-
ements, impossible to perform. Therefore, these vari-
ables are not commonly used for control purposes.
Experience has shown [8] that three process vari-
ables: collection zone height, air holdup (volumetric
percentage of air) in the collection zone and bias
water 5ow rate (net ow of wash water passing
through the froth zone), are key variables to the met-
allurgical column performance and directly related
with grade and recovery.
The collection zone height is mainly related with the
residence time of particles inside this zone. Air holdup
characterises the hydrodynamic behaviour inside the
otation column. This variable is closely related with
the carry over of air bubbles. The cleaning action in
the froth zone is usually characterised by the bias
water 5ow rate, de1ned as the fraction of the wash
water ow rate that eFectively passes through the froth
zone. This ow of water transports the 1ne hydrophilic
particles, entrained in the air bubbles=hydrophobic
particles aggregates, back to the collection zone (the
remaining ow rate is short circuited to the over ow).
This variable is commonly expressed as a percentage
of the feed ow rate.
These three variables are commonly controlled by
direct manipulation of wash water, air and under ow
ow rates.
Despite the considerable investment in the study of
this process and the numerous studies reported, there
is still lack of knowledge about some of its physical
and chemical laws. Physical and chemical phenom-
ena involved in this process are di4cult to model due
mainly to the complex mathematical characterisation
of the process inside each zone as well as in the inter-
action between the two zones. The description of the
steady state relationships is a complex task. The tran-
sient behaviour of this process is even more di4cult
to explain, being the dynamic model constituted by
a large number of diFerential equations with several
parameters of di4cult or impossible estimation.
To overcome the di4culties in the development of
phenomenological models, the development of em-
pirical models, based on experimental data is used.
 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133
One of the most commonly used techniques is called
System Identi1cation [13]. Work has been done aim-
ing at the development of a linear dynamic model
that could describe the relationships between con-
trolled and manipulated variables [2,7]. The studies
concluded that only some of the relationships are
modelled satisfactorily by linear models preventing
the development of a complete mathematical dynami-
cal model, based on system identi1cation techniques,
that can be used in process control.
One solution commonly adopted in the control of
this process is to use three independent SISO loops.
However, the cross eFects (interactions between vari-
ables) lead to frequent deactivation of some of the
loops in order that the stability can be retaken [1].
This process is, however, satisfactorily controlled
by skilled operators using linguistic rules that are func-
tional relations between controlled and manipulated
variables. These rules, although subjective and impre-
cise, allow the stabilisation of the operating conditions
of the process. One possible way of controlling this
process is to use the emulation of human thinking us-
ing fuzzy control [3,10].
Fuzzy control can be applied to situations where
the information sources can be interpreted only on a
qualitative or inexact form avoiding the need for a
time consuming task of construction of mathematical
models that can be used in the synthesis of a controller
[14,16].
This paper describes a control system that uses
fuzzy logic inference to control, in real time, the three
above-mentioned process variables: collection zone
height (load rejection and servo-control), air holdup
in the collection zone, (load rejection) and bias
water ow rate (load rejection and servo-control),
by manipulation of the three operational variables
under ow, wash water and air ow rates.
2. Control system
Table 1 lists the input and output variables of the
fuzzy controller. The architecture of the control system
is depicted in Fig. 2. The three main parts of the con-
trolled system are the column otation process (with
the sensors and the actuators), a programmable logic
controller (PLC) and a personal computer (PC).
123
The PLC is in charge of the interface between PC
and instrumentation and of the low level control (con-
trol of ow rates by manipulation of valves open-
ing and pumps speed). The utilisation of the PLC on
the control system, although not compulsory (it could
have been used PC input and output cards for interface
with the instrumentation), permits to take advantage
of the PLC pre-programmed functions (as PID algo-
rithms for low level control) and the portability of the
control system to the industrial scale. Moreover, this
option was, at the time of the pilot plant installation,
the cheapest one.
The program that performs the real time control
is executed in the PC. The user acts on the process
using the mouse to modify the controlled variable set
points (H SP ; cSP and QBSP ) or the key ¡Esc¿ on the
keyboard to exit the program. The controller input
variables are not directly measured being calculated
prior to processing. The collection zone height (H )
and the collection zone air holdup (c ) are estimated
using two pressure sensors measurements. The bias
water owrate (QB ) is estimated from under ow and
feed ow rates.
The process information can be visualised on the
monitor by means of a graphical user interface (see
Fig. 3). The current values (black line) and set points
(grey line) of the controlled variables are shown on
three sliding graphics on the top of the monitor. Un-
der these, the current values of the output variables
are displayed, from left to right: QA ; QU and QW .
The controlled variables and the feed ow rate set
points can be modi1ed using the mouse on 4 rulers
of sliding cursors, located at the bottom right of the
monitor.
The seventh sliding graphic, on the left bottom of
the screen, displays the current values and set points
of the feed ow rate. However, it should be noted that,
in industrial environment, feed ow rate is an exter-
nal disturbance. In laboratory experimental tests, how-
ever, it was manipulated (externally to the controller)
to simulate an external disturbance.
All the stream owrates are given in l=h. The col-
lection zone height is given in cm and the air holdup
is expressed as %. The bias water ow rate is com-
monly represented as a fraction or percentage of the
feed ow rate. In the example depicted in Fig. 3 it
was speci1ed a bias water ow rate set-point of 10%
of the feed ow rate (10 l=h).
124 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133

Table 1
Fuzzy controller input and output variables

Input variables Output variables

Controlled variables Controlled variables set-points Manipulated variables

H (collection zone height) H SP QA (air ow rate)

 c (air holdup) SP
c Q W (wash water ow rate)
Q B (bias water ow rate) QSPB Q U (under ow ow rate)

Fig. 2. Architecture of the control system.

3. Real time control Task 2: ProcessWindows—Graphical user inter-

3.1. Real time program
The real time control is performed by means of a
computer program, running on one PC. It comprises
a set of tasks of cyclic execution and synchronised
operation. The tasks are the following:
Task 1: UserInput—Processing of an asynchronous
event (¡Esc¿ key to exit the program).
face (GUI) windows management, after user interac-
tion with the mouse on the sliding rulers for a set point
change.
Task 3: UpdateWindows—Every 0:5 s, variables
current values updating on the GUI.
Task 4: Controller—This task reads the sensors
current values, computes the current values of H; c
and QB , which are not directly measured, calculates,
by means of fuzzy logic inference, the values of the
 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133
Fig. 3. View of the user graphics interface during a control test.
manipulated variables (QU ; QA and QW ) and transmits
those values to the PLC.
Task 5: WriteToDisk—File recording, every 4 s, of
the following information: the time from the beginning
of the program execution, the controlled variables set
points H SP ; cSP and QBSP and respective current values,
the fuzzy controller output values (QU ; QA and QW )
and the current values of these variables, as well as,
the desired feed ow rate QFSP and its current value.
Task 6: UpdateSetPAlim—Updating of the value
of the feed owrate (QF ) that is the set point of the
respective PID on the PLC. This task is performed
when the user acts via mouse on the respective ruler
of sliding cursor.
Task 7: VerifyLink—Veri1cation of the connec-
tion to the PLC. If the task is not succeeded an error
message appears on the monitor, describing the type
of error that occurred, closing the series port, all the
1les opened and the graphics windows.
Structurally, the main program is divided into
three blocs: initialisations, execution and end of the
program. Initialisation deals with the initialisation
of the variables used by the controller, opening the
recording 1le, writing of the header of this 1le, dy-
125
namical memory allocation and initialisation of the
discretisation vectors (containing the membership
functions that characterise the controller output vari-
ables), initialisation of the GUI that includes the
de1nition of the windows borders, colours, sliding
curves, sliding cursor ruler and creation of the cyclic
and the asynchronous above-mentioned seven tasks
that are to be executed. Execution deals with cyclic
execution of the tasks under the control of a real time
operating system RTKERNEL, through its main rou-
tine Scheduler. The Scheduler controls the execution
of the tasks according to priorities and execution times
pre-de1ned. The tasks synchronisation is performed
using semaphores.
The end of the program happens when the key
Esc
is pressed. All the data 1les, the series port and the
GUI are then closed.
3.2. Fuzzy controller structure and parameters
The collection zone height (H ) was found to be the
most important variable to control for the stable op-
eration of the otation column. To speed up the con-
trol of this variable a hybrid controller was designed
126 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133
and implemented. When H is outside the pre-de1ned
universe of discourse, the conditions of the process
are considered to be anomalous and, for a quick con-
vergence of H to the neighbourhood of its set-point,
QU and QW are simultaneously manipulated in strong
conditions. It is said that the controller is working in
an emergence mode. Otherwise, i.e., when H is within
the pre-de1ned universe of discourse, it acts in a fuzzy
mode. In this case, taking into account the values of
H , c and QB and the corresponding set points, the
controller performs the fuzzy logic inference calculat-
ing the updated values of the manipulated variables
(QU , QW and QA ).
The knowledge for fuzzy controller development
was acquired heuristically. The fuzzy controller has
a Mamdani type structure with linguistic rules an-
tecedents and consequents (see for example [14]).
Fig. 4 shows the structure of the fuzzy controller.
Due to the non-existence of a dynamic mathemati-
cal model, the tuning of the controller parameters was
done experimentally by evaluating the controlled sys-
tem performance to superimposed changes in the ex-
ternal and controlled variables set-points, in diFerent
process conditions (when possible, the process was
operated in limit conditions) [6].
The main characteristics of the fuzzy controller are
the following:
(1) Normalisation (scale up): The current val-
ues of the controlled and manipulated variables are
normalised according to pre-de1ned universes of dis-
course (UD). While the manipulated variables UD are
the physical limits of the equipment, the controlled
variables have adaptative UD with centres that are
the variables set points and ranges that are constant,
i.e., the controlled variables UD change, by trans-
lation, each time the controlled variables set points
are modi1ed. The ranges are set according to the de-
sired quality of control, taking into account that large
ranges lead to large steady state errors (unless a large
number of membership functions is considered) and
small ranges will have as a consequence oscillatory
behaviour of the controlled variables, with frequent
manipulation of the equipments, reducing their life
time.
The upper limit of the universe of discourse of the
collection zone height variable (H UD ) is the value of
the variable set point (H SP ) plus 3 cm and the lower
limit is H SP minus 3 cm. The set-point is allowed to
vary between 10 and 50 cm:
H UD = [H SP ± 3] cm; with H SP [10; 50] cm:
The upper limit of the universe of discourse of the air
holdup variable (cUD ) is the value of the variable set-
point (cSP ) plus 5% and the lower limit is H SP minus
5%. The set point is allowed to vary between 10 and
25%:
cUD = [cSP ± 5]%; with cSP [10; 25]%:
The upper limit of the universe of discourse of the
bias water owrate variable (QBUD ) is the value of the
variable set point (QBSP ) plus 3 l=h and the lower limit
is QBSP minus 3 l=h. As referred, the bias water ow
rate set point (QBSP ) is commonly 1xed as a fraction or
percentage of the current value of the feed ow rate.
The set point is allowed to vary between 5% and 15%
of the feed owrate:
QBUD = [QBSP ± 3] l=h;
with QBSP [0:05QF ; 0:15QF ] l=h:
(2) Fuzzi<cation: Fuzzi1cation procedure involves
the de1nition of the number of linguistic terms (low,
high, very high, etc.) that characterise input and output
variables and the mathematical models of the mem-
bership functions. The number of terms determines
the granularity of the linguistic characterisation of the
variables (a richer variable de1nition is achieved con-
sidering more attributes). In what regards input vari-
ables, the terms number determines, as well, the di-
mension of the problem, because the number of input
variable terms determines the number of rules in the
rule base and a larger rule base takes a higher process-
ing time. As the rule base was heuristically de1ned,
a large number of terms would not re ect an actual
knowledge and therefore only 3 terms per variable
were considered (low, medium and high).
The linguistic terms are mathematically modelled
by sinusoidal functions (see Fig. 5). These functions
have 4 parameters (a, b, c and d) that can be adjusted
according to the knowledge of the variables. Usage
of more open curves (larger distance between coe4-
cients) means that the knowledge about the variable
is more vague and the controller permits that the vari-
able under control goes far from its set point, before
the controller acts vigorously. The less open curves
M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133 127

Fig. 4. Fuzzy controller structure.

Fig. 5. Sinusoidal membership functions.

128 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133

Table 2 (3) Fuzzy logic inference: The membership de-

Membership functions parameters grees, obtained in the fuzzy1cation phase, are used
Variables Linguistic terms Parameters to compute the controller outputs, using fuzzy logic
inference on the de1ned rule base. The fuzzy logic
a b c d
inference has two components: the rule base and the
Controlled variable inference engine.
c Low 0.3 0.5 (a) Rule base: The rule base contains the heuris-
Medium 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.7
tic qualitative knowledge interactions between input
High 0.5 0.7
and output variables. The control law synthesis is ex-
QB Low 0.2 0.5 pressed in linguistic rules of the type:
Medium 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.6
High 0.5 0.8
If c is low and QB is medium and
H Low 0.2 0.5
Medium 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.6 H is medium then QU is medium
High 0.5 0.8

Manipulated variable The rule base building used the available knowledge
QU Low 0.2 0.5
from bibliographic search, results of steady state simu-
Medium 0.2 0.45 0.55 0.8
High 0.5 0.8 lations, operators interviews and experimental data of
transient analysis. Several rule bases, from very sim-
QA Low 0.2 0.5 ple to complex ones, were formulated and evaluated.
Medium 0.2 0.45 0.55 0.8 It was concluded that one simple rule base with only
High 0.5 0.8
11 rules (Table 3) obtained equivalent results to the
QW Low 0.2 0.5 ones achieved with more complex rule bases. This is
Medium 0.2 0.45 0.55 0.8 comparable to the manual control of human operators
High 0.5 0.8 that use simple but eFective rules. In the rule base de-
veloped the strategy used is to control c by manip-
ulation of QA and to control QB by manipulation of
QU . As mentioned above, H is a variable that must be
controlled with a higher priority. The non linear char-
de1nition approximates to on–o= control. The param- acteristics of fuzzy control are used in the control of
eters of the mathematical functions used are shown in this variable: if H is far from its set point (H high or
Table 2. low) two of the manipulated variables (QU and QW )
When a controller works in real time it is not nec- are manipulated to control H , in order that H con-
essary to discretise the controlled variables UD being verges quickly to the neighbourhood of its set point.
the membership degrees calculated on line. The uni- It should be pointed out that, although the rules do
verses of discourse of the manipulated variables, on not include, explicitly, the controlled variables set-
the contrary, must be discretised. For each manipu- points, these set-points are the centres of the universes
lated variable, the result of the fuzzy logic inference is of discourse and the fuzzi1cation of the controlled
a fuzzy set with a mathematical representation that is variables (expressed in the terms low, medium and
not known a priori. These variables are characterised high) is made based on the UDs.
by discrete fuzzy sets (modelled by sinusoidal func- (b) Inference engine: The fuzzy logic inference is
tions) but saved in memory as 1nite sets of pre-de1ned performed by the max–prod method. In this method
dimension, according to the number of discretisation the fuzzy set union is modelled by the t-norm maxi-
intervals considered (in this case 100 intervals were mum (max) and the implication by the s-norm scalar
considered). The discretisation intervals have equally product (prod). The intersection of the fuzzy sets that
spaced nodes (uniform discretisation) for the three represent the terms of the input variables is calculated
variables. by the t-norm prod.
 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133 129

Table 3
Rule base

Controlled variables Manipulated variables

If H low then QU low;

If H medium and Q B low then QU high;
If H medium and Q B medium then QU medium; Control of Q U
If H medium and Q B high then QU low;
If H high then QU high;

If H low then Q W high;

If H medium then Q W medium; Control of Q W
If H high then Q W low;

If  c low then QA high;

If  c medium then QA medium; Control of QA
If  c high then QA low;

(4) Defuzzi<cation: The representative value of the

fuzzy set that is the result of the fuzzy logic inference
is obtained by calculation of its gravity centre.

4. Pilot plant

The experimental work was carried out in a labo-

ratory scale pilot otation column of 3:2 m height by
80 mm diameter (see Fig. 6). The otation column is
equipped with variable speed peristaltic pumps (ma-
nipulation of reject and feed ow rates) and control
valves (air and wash water ow rates manipulation).
The under ow and feed ow rates are measured by
electromagnetic owmeters, the wash water ow rate
by a turbine meter and the air ow rate by an ori1ce
plate (see Fig. 7).
The system was operated with air, water and a con-
stant small concentration of frother, needed to form
Fig. 6. Flotation column top view.
millimetric stable air bubbles (10ppm of Aerofroth 65
from Cyanamid).
The collection zone height is calculated or inferred 5. Results
by means of a soft sensor that uses the measurements
of two pressure sensors, mounted on the column wall The experimental work included several tests car-
[4]. These measurements are also used to estimate the ried out with diFerent operational conditions. Each ex-
air holdup in the collection zone. The bias water ow periment consisted in a series of step disturbances of
rate is calculated as the diFerence between under ow one variable setpoint (see, for instance, Fig. 8(a)). The
and feed ow rates minus the contribution of this dif- controller was tested in load rejection control and in
ference for the collection zone height variation. servo-control. In the 1rst case, a disturbance of 25%
130 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133

Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of the pilot plant.

Fig. 8. Variables responses to an external disturbance (Q F ): (a) controlled variables responses, (b) manipulated variables responses.
 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133 131

Table 4 industrial process). Fig. 8(a) exempli1es the response

Maximum values of the evaluation parameters obtained
Variable k  (s)  periment. Fig. 8(b) shows the responses of the manip-
disturbed
H QB H QB H QB
(cm) (l=h) (cm) (l=h)
QF 0.9 0.5 — — 1.4 3.9
H SP 0.4 1.0 52 — 2.3 7.6
Q BSP 1.1 0.9 — 14 1.4 2.6
above and below the operating point was superim-
posed to the feed ow rate, QF . In the second case,
the setpoints of the controlled variables H (increase
and decrease of 40% of its operating point) and QB
(increase and decrease of 30% of its operating point)
were changed. As the tests ran with constant frother
concentration, only the load rejection control of collec-
tion zone air holdup was performed (when air holdup
set point is changed a diFerent concentration of frother
is needed).
The responses of the controlled variables were eval-
uated through:
• k, the average steady state error during the
experiment,
• , the average standard deviation during the
experiment,
• , the maximum settling time obtained during the
experiment, de1ned as the time, after disturbance,
the controlled variable takes to reach a new steady
state value.
Results of these studies are given in full detail in
[5]. Table 4 and Figs. 8–10 show some typical results
of the experiments. In these 1gures, QB is expressed
as a percentage of the current feed ow rate and H
is the collection zone height above the feed inlet. c
is not sensitive to the external disturbance of QF nei-
ther to the modi1cation of H SP or QBSP , therefore, the
results of their responses and of the response of QA
(manipulated for c control) are not presented.
In the control of H and QB , after an external distur-
bance of QF , a maximum k of 0:9 cm for H and 0:5 l=h
for QB (both less than the measuring errors of these
variables) with  of 1:4 cm and 3:9 l=h, respectively,
were obtained. These results show that the controller
is able to control the process when an external distur-
bance occurs (with a higher magnitude than the mag-
nitude of the disturbances that normally occur in the
of the controlled variables H and QB during one ex-
ulated variables, QU and QW , in the same experiment.
Fig. 9(a) shows typical responses of H and QB to
the modi1cation of H SP . The maximum k obtained in
all experiments was 0:4 cm, with a  of 2:3 cm and
a  of 52 s. It should be pointed out that the peaks
observed on the response of QB correspond to the
transient response of H (i.e. a moving interface) and in
this situation the value of QB has no physical meaning.
The responses of the manipulated variables, QU and
QW , in this experiment, can be visualised in Fig. 9(b).
Fig. 10(a) shows typical responses of H and QB to
the modi1cation of QBSP . The maximum k obtained was
1:1 cm for H and 0:9 l=min for QB and a  of 1:4 cm
and 2:6 l=min, respectively. The maximum  observed
was 14 s. In Fig. 10(b) the corresponding responses of
the manipulated variables, Q U and Q W , are depicted.
6. Conclusions
This paper describes a real time control system of a
otation column. The controlled system is composed
by a personal computer, where the fuzzy control al-
gorithm is executed, by a programmable logic con-
troller, where the PID low level control of ow rates
is achieved, by instrumentation in the 1eld and by the
controlled process, a otation column.
The controller is hybrid using fuzzy logic infer-
ence when operating conditions are considered to be
normal. Anomalous conditions happen when the col-
lection zone height is too low or too high. The objec-
tive of the control is the servo-control of the collection
zone height and of the bias water ow rate and regu-
lation control of these variables and of the collection
zone air holdup.
Due to the non-existence of applicable mathe-
matical dynamic models, the knowledge for con-
troller development was heuristically acquired and
experimentally evaluated. The fuzzy controller has
a Mamdani structure. Some experimental results ob-
tained with the two phase system (air and water)
are presented showing an adequate performance in
both load rejection and servo-control. H and Q B are
tightly controlled when an external disturbance of Q F
occurs. In the servo control the results obtained were,
132 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133

Fig. 9. Variables responses to a modi1cation of the set point of H : (a) controlled variables responses, (b) manipulated variables responses.

Fig. 10. Variables responses to a modi1cation of the set point of Q B : (a) controlled variables responses, (b) manipulated variables responses.

as well, acceptable. Work is now in progress to adapt
the controller to the three-phase system (air, water
and mineral particles).
As long as the human knowledge, represented in
linguistic terms, about one hard to model process is
good enough, it is possible to start the design of a non-
linear regulatory controller through a careful mathe-
matical translation of the available knowledge to a set
of fuzzy rules, which are the heart of a fuzzy logic
inference system.
The mathematical translation step is becoming more
and more stimulating owing to the availability of ex-
cellent software tools like Fuzzy Logic Toolbox [9]
for MATLAB and to the possibility of using directly
the resulting de1nition of the fuzzy logic system into
the control application.
However, the starting values of the parameters
involved in the translation step usually need to be
adjusted for the controller to achieve acceptable or
improved performance. Due to the huge experimen-
tal work, the manual parameter adjustment (tuning)
is feasible only when the number of parameters (or
rules) is small.
In fact, citing Lewis [12], “Tuning methods and
methods of predicting performance continue to be the
weakest aspects of the fuzzy control design process,
especially when compared to conventional control.
However these problems are not debilitating, and in
many cases they are more than compensated for by
the many strengths of fuzzy control methods”.
The application of real time optimisation methods
such as a modi1ed Nelder and Mead algorithm or ge-
netic algorithms may remove the weakest aspects of
the fuzzy control design process through on-line pa-
rameter tuning, at least of a parameter subset. This
seems to be especially true if good starting values of
 M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão / Fuzzy Sets and Systems 125 (2002) 121–133 133

the fuzzy system parameters can be provided, thus as- [7] M.T. Carvalho, F. Durão, C. Fernandes, Dynamic
suring the success of the tuning phase. characterization of column otation process: laboratory case
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[10] T. Hirajima, T. Takamori, M. Tsunekawa, T. Matsubara, K.
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