BSc Senior Design Project

This project showcases the construction, interface, and controller design of a quadruple tank system, for the objective of controlling the water level in the lower two tank, using model-based controller design approach. This system presents a challenging multi-input multi-output (MIMO) control system, where inputs and outputs are coupled non-linear variables.

The quadruple tank control system is a multivariable control system, which is based on the connection of two double tanks processes. It has been widely used in control and instrumentation research to illustrate the fundamentals of multivariable process control.

This system is a very hot area of research for control engineers, since the system is basic, easy to understand, simple to construct, cheap and reflects the multivariable control theory, which is the nearest to real-life control problems engineers face every day in industry.

First, the system was built from scratch. Then instruments were added to the system. After that, the interface between the quadruple tank system and the computer was constructed using National Instruments LabView. And then, the controller design process started, which consists of step testing, system identification, and controller design.

It is found that multiple independent PID controller are capable of achieving the desired control parameters.

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