International Journal of Mineral Processing, 40 ( 1993 ) 45-56 45

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam

Learning control of an autogenous grinding

circuit

Juan Valenzuelaa, Kaddour Najim b, Ren6 del Villara and Michel Bourassa c
aDkpartement de Mines et Mktallurgie, Universitk Laval, Sainte-Foy, QC, Canada
bCNRS URA 192, GRECO SARTA, Ecole Nationale Supkrieure dTngenieurs de Gknie Chimique,
31078 Toulouse cedex, France
cCentre de Recherches minkrales, 1180, Place Dufresne, Qukbec, QC, Canada
(Received 13 October 1992; accepted after revision 15 July 1993)

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of the application of a new process control technique, the Learning
Control, to a mineral processing operation. A hierarchical system of learning automata is used as a
model of the controller. An empirical simulator capable of reproducing the dynamic of the autogenous
grinding process is considered as the random environment in which the hierarchical system of auto-
mata operates. A probability distribution is associated to the manipulated variable. This distribution
is continuouslyadjusted by the learning system using a reinforcement scheme. Numerical results have
demonstrated its control properties, transparent tuning and robustness, while requiring minimal com-
putational load.

INTRODUCTION

Autogenous grinding is now used for the comminution of a wide spectrum

of mineral ores, specially in large-capacity plants (Brown and Ratte, 1989 ).
As its name implies, it uses the ore itself to assist in the grinding process.
Usually, autogenous or semiautogenous grinding is complemented by a sec-
ondary grinding stage, either a pebble mill or a ball mill (Bassarear, 1982 ).
This secondary stage, usually in closed circuit with classification units, helps
in controlling the quality of the finished product.
When autogenous (or semiautogenous) mills are the exclusive unit used in
the grinding circuit, controlling the quality of the final product could become
a difficult task. For a successful operation, the ore must be very competent
and this competency should be quite constant, conditions which are seldom
met. The ore and not the metallurgist usually controls the grind (Bassarear,
1982).
The process control problem is characterized by non-linearities, time-vary-
ing dynamics and uncertainties, usually originating from the variability of the
characteristics (hardness and grade) of the ore fed to the circuit. As a result,
the use of advanced techniques for control purposes seems very promising. A
detailed survey of such methods has been published by Vien et al. ( 1991 ). A

0301-7516/93/$06.00 © 1993 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved.

46 J. VALENZUELAETAL.

list of some applications of these techniques in autogenous and semiautogen-

ous milling is included in Mular and Burkert (1989). Herbst et al. (1989)
presented their experience in the use of model-based expert control systems
to this type of operation. Among these techniques, self-adjusting methods are
particularly appealing. They can be classified into two categories: (i) adap-
tive techniques, and (ii) learning techniques (Najim and M'Saad, 1991; Na-
jim and Oppenheim, 1991 ). In the first case, an input-output model, whose
parameters are continously (on-line) estimated using an optimization pro-
cedure, is used to compute changes to the process-manipulated variables.
Learning techniques operate in a similar manner. However, such systems
do not require prior modelling of the controlled process and require fewer
parameters to be tuned. The probability associated to the automaton states is
adjusted using an iterative procedure called "reinforcement scheme".
As with adaptive techniques, learning systems modify their behaviour based
on the response of the environment in which they operate. In the case of au-
tomatic control, the environment (random medium) corresponds to the pro-
cess to be controlled. Learning systems are a response to engineering design
problems arising from nonlinearities, time-varying dynamics and uncertainty.
This paper presents the control of a mineral processing operation using a
hierarchical learning system (Thathachar and Ramakrishan, 1981; Najim,
1988, pp. 136-154; Najim and Oppenheim, 1991 ). The learning system is
used as a controller in a feedback control loop of an autogenous grinding cir-
cuit (the random environment) as shown in Fig. 1. An empirical simulator
calibrated with industrial data and capable of reproducing the main process
characteristics (random and time variant) was used to emulate the autogen-
ous grinding circuit controlled by the learning system. The learning system
collects and processes the information provided by the environment (func-
tion realizations), changing its own structure (state transitions or action
probabilities) as time evolves to achieve optimal performance based on the
control objective. The variation domains of the control variables are discre-
tized into a set of values associated to the states of the last level of the hierar-
chical learning-automata. The control actions are selected according to the

~ ENVIRONMENT
(AUTOGENOUS GRINDING) I i

'---'-I LEAR.NING
k SYSTEM J

Fig. 1. Feedback connection of learning system and environment.

LEARNING CONTROL OF AN AUTOGENOUS GRINDING CIRCUIT 47

probabilities assigned based on past relative accomplishments of the control

objective. The learning system continuously adjusts its probability distribu-
tion, using the previously-mentioned reinforcement scheme.
This paper is structured in four sections: the process operation and model
description, the hierarchical learning system, the practical aspects for the au-
tomata implementation, and finally, the simulation results, emphasizing the
applicability of the optimization procedure.

MODELLING OF THE AUTOGENOUS G R I N D I N G SYSTEM

A typical autogenous grinding circuit is shown in Fig. 2. Ore and water are
fed to the mill at fixed rate. The size distribution of the mill product is largely
determined by the size of the discharge-grate openings, which retains the
coarser rocks. The mill product is classified on a screening stage (usually of
double-deck type) having smaller openings than those of the mill grate. Un-
dersized particles are sent to the separation plant (flotation or gravity con-
centration) and oversized particles are recirculated to the mill (Valenzuela
and Del Villar, 1991a,b).
An empirical simulator was developed to represent such a system and it
was calibrated using industrial data gathered from two experimental cam-
paigns (Valenzuela and Del Villar, 1992 ). The choice of an empirical model
over a phenomenological model to represent the dynamic behaviour of the
process was made for its simplicity, its low requirement of computational time,
as well as its capability of handling stochastic disturbances. As a consequence,
Water feed Ore feed rate to
separation plant
iij®?iiiii:l
Ore feed
Bearing pressure
Power draw

Autogenous
mill

Sizing
screen

l Recycle

Sump

Concentrate
mass flow rate
Fig. 2. Autogenous grinding circuit.
48 J. VALENZUELAET AL.

it can be easily used for real time control purposes. The empirical equations
used in this simulator reproduce the relationships between the input variables
(ore and water flow-rate to the mill) and the main process state variables
(bearing pressure, power draw, flow-rate of recycled ore, solids feed rate to
the separation plant and final concentrate flow-rate) under different operat-
ing conditions. The various process delays were identified by a correlation
analysis between the collected time-series of selected operating variables
(Valenzuela et al., 1993 ). In order to reproduce the random and time-varying
characteristics of the process, time-series of the model parameters (as calcu-
lated from historical plant data) were used.
The control objective of the process can be stated as: to maximize the final
concentrate mass flowrate under the usual operational constraints (grinding
circuit and concentration plant capacity). In this study, the operation is con-
sidered to be limited by the capacity of the concentration plant, i.e. a maxi-
mum concentrate throughput of 475 t/h (YRef). The water flowrate to the
mill has been assumed to be constant for all the simulation runs. Historical
operation of the simulated plant indicates that the concentrate tonnage values
are distributed between 453 and 508 t/h, therefore the control objective de-
fined for the learning system was set to operate within a _ 5 t/h range around
the YRefvalue [ YRmin= 470 and YRmax= 480 ], by manipulating the ore feed-
rate to the mill.

THE H I E R A R C H I C A L V A R I A B L E - S T R U C T U R E OF A U T O M A T A

For the sake of simplicity, a single automaton is considered in this study.

An automaton is a sequential machine specified through the system of objects
{ W, ~,/7, P, R, G} detailed in the following paragraphs.
W represents the automaton input provided by the performance evaluation
unit either in a continuous or a discrete form. In the latter case, W(t)
assumes one of two values: 1, called a penalty or an inaction (non-pen-
alty), and O, called a reward. It is directly related to the environment
response and to the targetted objective.
qb represents the set {~,...,~s} of internal states.
17 {nL,...,nr} where r<s, represents the set of automaton outputs or con-
troller actions. The actions chosen by the automaton corresponds to the
environment inputs (Fig. 1 ).
P {pt (t),...,Pr(t)} represents the state probability distribution at time t,
where pi(t) is the probability for the automaton to choose the action ui
at time t, i.e. Pr{u(t) =ui} =pz(t) and Ep~(t) = 1 for i = 1...r.
R represents the reinforcement scheme which changes the probability vec-
tor from P( t ) to P( t + 1 ).
LEARNING CONTROL OF AN AUTOGENOUS GRINDING CIRCUIT 49

G represents the mapping of the set @ onto the set prod (G; @-,H). Gen-
erally, G is a stochastic function, but it is often assumed to be determin-
istic and one-to-one (that is r = s and s < oo).

To improve the optimization search, it is often necessary to increase the

number of actions, slowing down the behaviour of the automaton. This prob-
lem has been avoided using a hierarchical structure of automata (Thathachar
and Ramakrishan, 1981 ). A three-level hierarchical variable-structure of au-
tomata is depicted in Fig. 3. The first level of this hierarchy consists of a single
automaton with NI internal states (NL = 3 ). The second level is composed of
N~ automata of N2 actions each (N2=2). The last level is formed by N~'N2
single automata of N3 actions each (N3 = 2 ). Based on the probability distri-
bution, the first-level automaton (A) randomly selects an action (ni~). This
in turn, activates the automaton Ai~ at the second level, which chooses an
action (niln) from its action probability distribution. Consequently, the au-
tomaton A,~2 (third level) is activated, etc.
The probability vector P ( t ) for each automaton depends only on its corre-
sponding level and on the action selected at the previous level. It should be
noted that the hierarchy consists of 10 automata ( 10 probability vectors) and
only 3 of them are adjusted. This clearly shows the convenience of a hierar-
chical structure in relation with a single automaton (the considered hierarchy
is equivalent to a single automaton of 12 states ). The probability distribution
associated to each activated automaton is adjusted using the following rein-
forcement scheme.

AIII1

gill ... g211 . •• ]]-322

Fig. 3. Hierarchicalvariable-structureof automata.
TABLE 1

Behaviour o f the performance evaluation unit

Y(t) < YRmin YRmin~ Y(t) <~YRm~, Y(t) > TRIne,

Y ( t - d ) < Ysm~. AY> 0 AY=0 AY<0 W=0 W= 1

W=0 W= 1 W= 1 ~/ q/2
q/2 q r/. 1.5

YRmin< Y(t--d) < Ysmax W= 1 W=0 W= 1

q q q

Y(t-d) > YRmax W= 1 W=0 Ay> 0 AY=0 AY>O

q/2 q W=I W=I W=O
q'l.5 r/

N
O'7

,,...]
LEARNING CONTROL OF AN AUTOGENOUS GRINDING CIRCUIT 51

Let i be the selected state, then:

p,(t+ 1 ) =p~(t) + ( 1 - 2.w(t) ).t/.pi(t) • ( 1 -p~(t) )
p~(t+l)=pj(t)-(1-2.w(t)).q.pj(t).p~(t) j¢i (1)
Unfortunately, the recursion equations ( 1 ) are not numerically sound; these
equations are sensitive to round-off errors, that can accumulate and fail to
satisfy the probability-preserving conditions. To avoid this problem, we have
introduced a normalization procedure which consists of dividing the right
hand side of Eqs. ( 1 ) by the sum E; of the components of the probability
vector (Y~p= Y~p~(t),for i = 1...r).
The performance-evaluation unit generates reward ( W = 0 ) , inaction
( W= 1 ), and q values in accordance to the set of rules defined for each appli-
cation. This set of rules have to represent the control objective related to the
considered process.

PRACTICALASPECTSOF THE AUTOMATAIMPLEMENTATION

The learning automata is an iterative procedure which continuously incor-

porates new available information (measurements) into the decision-making
process. This is done through the response of the performance-evaluation unit
complemented by a reinforcement scheme, which allows the modification of
the probability distribution associated to the discretized control variable U.
Notice that the performance of the learning controller does not depends on
the model structure. The empirical model is used only to support the deci-
sions which have to be continuously taken (on-line).
The implementation of the learning system procedure is performed through
the six steps described below:
1. Measurement of the controlled variable.
2. Use of this measure to evaluate the control performance and the response
of the performance evaluation unit W, based on heuristic and/or analyt-
ical rules (Table 1 ). If the choice of the action ui complies with the con-
ditions of good process behaviour, the unit delivers a response corre-
sponding to a non-penalty or inaction, or otherwise to a reward.
3. Use of this response to adjust the probability distribution by means of a
reinforcement scheme which generates P ( t + l ) from the previous P(t)
according to the performance-evaluation unit response, W(t).
4. Selection by the automaton, at each sampling period (iteration), of an
action based on the probability distribution defined by P(t). The tech-
nique used for selecting an action ni among r possibilities is based on the
generation of a normally-distributed random variable ( (easily accessible
in any computer environment). The automaton algorithm chooses the
action n, such that i is equal to the least value of j, verifying the following
constraint: Xpj (t), j = 1...i >t (.
This procedure of index-/selection is repeated for the three automata se-
lected at the three different levels. The last action selected corresponds to
52 J. VALENZUELAETAL.

the control variable. The fulfillment of the control objective is used to

determine the response W(t) of the performance-evaluation unit, which
in turn is used to adjust the probability vectors associated to the automata
of the hierarchical learning system.
. Application of the selected control action to the autogenous grinding sys-
tem (the manipulated variable of the process under consideration corre-
sponds to the learning system output).
. Return to step 1.

RESULTS

For this application a three-level hierarchical structure with N1 =N2 = N3 = 5

has been considered. A control domain between 800 and 1250 t / h has been
defined for the manipulated variable (ore feed rate). This domain has been
quantized into 125 (5 X 5 X 5 ) intervals such that ul = 800, and u~25= 1250.
A one-minute sampling period was chosen for the output (controlled) vari-
able. As no prior information to differentiate between the various possible
actions is available, the actions must be chosen assumed having an equal
probability of happening, that is, by pure chance. The initial probability dis-
tribution vector for each automaton is then given by pj ( 0 ) = 1/N~ (j = 1,...,N, ),
where N~ is the number of states at each level.
The performance evaluation unit used in this application is given in Table
l, where d = 1 and AY= Y ( t ) - Y ( t - 1 ). The value of the parameter r/is used
to emphasize or to downplay certain situations. A value of r/=0.5 yield the
best results among those studied. The output variable (Y) is measured at
time t and the control action (U) is computed and applied to the autogenous
grinding system (simulator) at time t + z, where r is the computation-time
related to the control algorithm above described (z~ 1 ms).
The behaviour of the autogenous grinding system under learning control is
shown in Fig. 4, which presents the concentrate tonnage as a function of time.
These results were obtained using the dynamic simulator, which, as previ-
ously said, models the deterministic and the stochastic behaviour of the pro-
cess. The input signals used for the simulation (in all cases), are time-series
collected during the sampling campaign.
The time evolution of the ore feed rate is depicted in Fig. 5. The probability
associated to the optimal state selected at the last level (control action) is
shown in Fig. 6. This probability converges to the value 1.
Fig. 7 presents three histograms of the concentrate flow rate which corre-
spond to: (a) the controlled operation (PIDs) of the industrial plant, (b) the
plant simulation still using PID controllers, and (c) the simulation of the
plant under learning control. In this figure, X represents the mean value and
D the standard deviation of the concentrate mass flow rate. The control strat-
egy used in all three cases is the same, only the controller used is different.
LEARNINGCONTROLOF ANAUTOGENOUSGRINDINGCIRCUIT 53

600
580
560
540
0 520
500 L
E > ! i~,. /
/~', * ~.

~a
e- 460 f
c9

o 440[

420 I

400~ 260 460 660 860 10'00 12'00 14'00 16'00 1800 2000
time [min]

Fig. 4. Concentrate solids mass flow rate.

1400

1300
e-

1200

09
1100
I

1000 RJi j'I

900

800~ 260 400 600 800 10'00 12'00 14'00 16'00 18'00 2000
time [rain]

Fig. 5. Grinding circuit solids mass feed rate.

54 J. V A L E N Z U E L A ET AL.

1
iF-~ ~ - ~

0.9

0.8 vi
i
•_--~ 0.7 !i 5 - -
d~

"~ 0.6

0.5 ,L

0.4

0.3 - - I
f

U
0.2
0 200 460 660 800 10'00 ~ 1200 1400 16'00 1800 '.000

time [min]

Fig. 6. Probability evolution of the optimal state.

525
historical simulated learning
automata
588

62 × ~68 ×
--17
i ij iI
475 i ij II "
J
r MAX
i i i
,[ i
' ~ 38 ~. 32 z '~1 56 z

450 3..

425
X 48B t/h 481 £/h 475 £/h Mean
D 14 t/h 12 ~/h 7 t/h S£d.

X+2D 5B8 t/h 584 t/h 490 t/h

X-2D 453 t/h 45B t/h 468 t/h

Fig. 7. Histograms of the concentrate mass flow rate.

LEARNINGCONTROLOF ANAUTOGENOUSGRINDINGCIRCUIT 55

More details on the control strategy are presented elsewhere (Valenzuela et

al., 1993; Bourque and Runnels, 1977).
The final concentrate flow rate is clearly better controlled by the learning
system algorithm. The variance has been decreased from 12 to 7 t/h, a reduc-
tion which leads to significant energy savings (Najim, 1988). A better con-
trolled concentrate flow rate would also permit the raising of the restriction
limit on the circuit throughput while maintaining process safety. The ability
of the learning control algorithm to achieve the control objective and to adapt
itself to the variations of the process parameters (dynamics) and distur-
bances affecting the behaviour of the autogenous grinding system is clearly
illustrated through these figures.

CONCLUSIONS

The control of an autogenous grinding system using a hierarchical system

of learning automata was studied using an empirical simulator calibrated with
data from a Canadian concentrator. The learning automata system is easy to
implement and requires minimal computational load. All available knowl-
edge of the process can be introduced in the performance evaluation unit to
continuously improve the behaviour of the controller.
Unlike other control strategies, few tuning parameters are associated to this
algorithm. The results show the ability of this control approach to improve
the efficiency of this complex and highly sensitive process. A substantial re-
duction in the variance of the final concentrate flow rate was obtained. This
may translate in removing (or raising) the present circuit throughput
limitations.

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