Feed Forward Control

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
 Peter Woolf et al.
 University of Michigan

Introduction
Feed-forward control is a useful tool in the field of chemical engineering when there is a
known set of deviations occurring upstream of the system. This would allow engineers to
account for that particular deviation within the controller and reduce the effects of the deviation
on the system. An example would be a car's cruise-control system. If it has feedback control,
when there is a slope and therefore a speed reduction, the feedback controller would compensate
by applying additional throttle to the engine. If it uses a feed-forward controller instead, the
controller would calculate the slope beforehand and throttle the engine before any speed
reduction occurs. In this sense, the controller predicts the incoming deviation and compensates
for it.

The following block diagram shows a feed-forward controller implemented on a idealized

process with a setpoint R� and load U�:

where:

 G^P�^� represents the process operator,

 G^M�^� represents the measurement operator,
  G^C�^� represents the controller operator, and
 FF�� is the feed-forward controller.

The perfect feed-forward controller is the inverse of the process operator, G^−1P�^�−1

For example:

G^−1P=KP(τδδt+1)=G^FF�^�−1=��(����+1)=�^��

In General:

G^−1PY=(U+G^FFU)+G^C(R−Y)�^�−1�=(�+�^���)+�^�(�−�)

(in the language of operator or state space).

Feed-Forward Control
The objective of feed-forward control is to measure disturbances and compensate for them
before the controlled variable deviates from the setpoint. Feed-forward control basically involves
a control equation which has certain corrective terms which account for predicted disturbances
entering the system. The equation is only effective for gains in a steady state process. Dynamic
compensation should be used in the control equation if there are any dynamic deviations with the
process response to the control action. This dynamic compensation ability will be discussed
further in the next section.

One form of a feed-forward control would be a Derivative (D) control which calculates the
change in error and compensates proportionately. But a D-control can’t perform by itself and
usually requires working in conjunction with a Proportional (P) or Proportional Integral (PI)
control. More information can be found in the PID Intro article.

Simulated below is a typical shell and tube heat exchanger which heats up liquid water using
steam.

Adding a feed-forward control into the system manipulates the amount of steam required to
compensate for the varying amounts of liquid feed coming in.
Overall heat balance:

Heat into the system is equal to the heat leaving the system.

Heat gained by liquid:

qout=mlCp(T2−T1)(11.2.1)(11.2.1)�out=����(�2−�1)

where:

 -- mass flow rate of the liquid

 -- the heat capacity of the liquid
 -- the input temperature of the liquid
 -- the desired temperature setpoint for the liquid

Heat lost by steam:

qin=msλ(11.2.2)(11.2.2)���=���

where:
  -- heat of vaporization
 -- mass flow rate of the steam

Therefore:

ms=Cpλml(T2−T1)(11.2.3)(11.2.3)��=�����(�2−�1)

To compensate for a deviation from the desired inlet temperature of the liquid water, the amount
of steam must be adjusted. Equation (3) acts as the control equation for the feed-forward
controller. This controller actuates the inlet valve of the steam and acquires temperature and flow
rate data from the inlet streams. Based on the desired temperature setpoint, T2, and the actual
input temperature, T1, we can use this equation to calculate the mass flow rate of the steam
required to compensate for the temperature deviation.

Accounting for System Non-Idealities

Often, one of the most difficult tasks associated with created a functional feed forward controller
is determining the necessary equations that govern the system. Even more complexities arise
when the system is not, and cannot be treated as, ideal. This is the case with many real and
practical systems. There is simply too much heat lost or too many unforeseen effects to safely
assume ideal conditions. The pure math of the example above does not account for these effects.

The equations will output a value to a control valve (often in voltage). That voltage will be
derived from some previously determined relationship between voltage, valve %open, and steam
flow rate. A very simple way to begin managing the issue of non-ideality is by including a "non-
ideality constant". This can be an additive or a multiplicative constant that adjusts the voltage
output determined by the equations.

 Voltage output is some function of the calculated required steam flow

V=f(ms)�=�(��)
 Voltage output is adjusted by some constant
V=cN∗f(ms)�=��∗�(��)
or
V=cN+f(ms)�=��+�(��)

This non-ideality constant cN�� often must be determined by trial. One way to accomplish
this is to use manual control to determine the output voltage needed at various inlet conditions.
Using the data from the manual trials, and the resulting voltage that your unadjusted feed
forward controller would output, it is possible to determine by what factor your feed forward
voltage needs to be adjusted. For example, if by manual control you determine that for inlet
conditions X the required voltage is 300 mV and your feed forward controller is only outputting
270 mV for conditions X, you need some factor to adjust.
It may also happen that your "non-ideality constant" will not turn out to be constant when you
begin to look at the data. In this situation, consider using a linear relationship between the non-
ideality factor and some inlet condition or implementing CASE or IF statements covering
discrete ranges of inlet conditions and giving different constants.

Dynamic Compensation
Dynamic compensation is a method to account for factors such as lead and lag times when using
feed-forward control. For instance, in the example above, when the feed forward controller
monitors a temperature decrease in the liquid feed, it will increase the steam flow rate - the
manipulated variable - to compensate and thus maintain the temperature of the exiting liquid
flow - the controlled variable. However, the steam may enter the heat exchanger faster than the
liquid feed and this will cause a transient increase in the controlled variable from the setpoint. In
an ideal case the steam and liquid feed would enter the heat exchanger at the same time and no
deviation from the set exiting temperature would be observed. Therefore, dynamic compensation
involves predicting non-ideal behavior and accounting for it. While perfect feed-forward control
is nearly impossible, dynamic compensation is one step closer.

Open Loop System

Feed-forward control is a open loop system. In an open loop system, the controller uses current,
or live, information of the system to generate appropriate actions by using predetermined
models. The sensor providing the reference command to the closed loop actuator is not an error
signal generated from a feedback sensor but a command based on measurements. This is the
defining characteristic of an open loop system, in which the controller does not manipulate the
system by trying to minimize errors in the controlled variable.

Because a feed-forward controller listens to the system and calculates adjustments without
directly knowing how well the controlled variable is behaving (if it does, it is getting feedback),
it is open loop in nature. In other words, the controller operates on "faith", that its mathematical
models are able to accurately generate responses (valve setting, motor speed, etc.) that lead to
expected results. Therefore, it is critical to implement good models in feed-forward systems. This
is often the most difficult part of a feed-forward design, as mentioned previously.

However, not all open loop systems are feed-forward. Open loop simply means the system is not
getting feedback information, in which the controlled variable tells the controller how well it is
doing compared to its set point (i.e. error). Feed-forward control, on the other hand, takes an
extra step by using non-feedback information to produce predictive actions.

This simple open loop system is an example of a open loop system that is not feed-forward. The
controller simply takes the current state of the controlled variable to generate a valve setting. It is
not getting a feedback, because the product temperature is not compared to a set pont. It is not
feed-forward either, because there is no mechanism that produces actions that may yield
expected results in the future.
Feed-forward applications
Feed-forward control is used in many chemical engineering applications. These include heat
exchangers, CSTRs, distillation columns and many other applications. A typical furnace, shown
below, is heating up an input fluid using fuel gas.

One possible disturbance is the flow rate of the incoming fluid. For example: If the fluid input
rate was increased by 10%, then the required heat duty should also be increased by
approximately 10%. This feed-forward control strategy immediately changes the fuel gas flow
rate and therefore the heat duty. The performance of feed-forward controls is limited by model
uncertainty, and in practice feed-forward control is combined with feedback control in order to
ensure better control of the system. Feed-forward control will compensate for fluid input
disturbances while feedback control will compensate for other disturbances—such as the fuel gas
flow rate or the temperature of the furnace—and model uncertainty. This system can also be
represented by the following block diagram.
Pros & Cons of Feed-Forward Control

Different applications require different types of control strategies. Sometimes feed-forward

solutions are required for proper system control; sometimes only feedback solutions are
necessary. Feedback systems don’t always maintain the setpoint as well because of the lag that
comes with waiting for the disturbance to propagate through the system. As a result, many
control systems use a combination of feed-forward and feedback strategies, such as PID
controllers. PID controllers use the Proportional-Integral control for feedback and the Derivative
control for feed-forward control. This forms a system with multiple loops, otherwise known as a
cascading system. A critical advantage of running both forward and backward controls is that the
system is still somewhat able to adjust a variable if one mechanism fails since the two loops use
different sensors. As a result, PID controllers are great for controlling processes, however, they
require a number of equations to determine feed-forward and feedback correction.

Feed-forward systems work by checking the conditions of an incoming stream and adjusting it
before the system is adversely affected. If the controller is told the traits of an acceptable
incoming stream, then it can compare that standard to whatever is coming down the pipe. The
feed-forward controller can look at this error and send a corrective signal to the automatic valve
responsible for that pipe (or any other control device). In order to have this kind of predictive
ability, the controller must have explicitly defined equations that account for the effects of a
disturbance on the system. In addition, these equations must also then prescribe action to
counter-act the disturbance. This can become even more difficult when there are several
incoming stream traits that are being observed. When there are multiple inputs, the feed-forward
system will require non-linear equations, leading to the development of neural networks.

Neural networks are based on “neurons”, which are representations of non-linear equations.
This concept is based on the brain's use of neurons to process and transmit information. The
neuron is actually comprised of a set of sigmoidal equations relating inputs to outputs. Sigmoid
functions are non-linear equations that take inputs and apply constants, or weights, to transform
the value to make an output. Below is a picture that illustrates the function that these neurons
serve.

The picture above shows a multiple input-output system. Most feed-forward systems have to deal
with more than one input.
Neurons can be “connected” in ways that allow the inputs to be transformed any number of
times. Neurons that are connected indicate that one sigmoidal function's output becomes the
input of another one. Although the concept of neurons is easily understandable, the difficulty lies
in the potential complexity of real systems. For example: the number and type of inputs go to
which neurons, the initial weights be, the number of neurons needed, etc. As you can see, there
are a lot of design questions that make developing the neural network difficult.

Coupled with an expected set of upstream conditions, the feed-forward system can continually
adjust the method it uses to control an output variable. The system is capable of doing this by
measuring sensor inputs coming into the controller, using neurons to transform the data, and
comparing the resulting output(s) to a set of known or desired outputs. If the actual output is
different from the desired output, the weights are altered in some fashion and the process repeats
until convergence is achieved. This is how a controller is able to "learn". Learning is just
discovering the weighting factors that allow the transformed ouputs to match the desired outputs.

The following table shows a list of feed-forward pros and cons:

Feed-Forward Pros

 Does not require disturbance to propagate through system for detection

 Able to predict incoming disturbance before they hit the system  Explici
 Neutral network utilized to familiarize control system with a changing harder
environment  Canno
 Provides better set point management than feed backward control  Requir
 Can be used in conjunction with teed-back control to provide multiple input  Requir
single input MISO control
A CSTR with a given volume with heat-exchange capability has a coolant water system to
maintain a specific system temperature (368K). To maintain this temperature, the flow of coolant
water oscillates. Let a temperature disturbance of 100K be introduced over a period of 10
minutes. For this simulation, the Excel spreadsheet from PID-Tuning Optimization was used to
create feed-forward and feed-backward data. In the following plot, observe the difference
between using feed-forward control versus feed-backward control in an example.

As shown, the feed-forward strategy works more effectively than the feed-backward strategy at
nullifying the disturbance (over the time frame). The temperatures reached in feedback mode
vary more than the ones seen in feed-forward mode. However, the controller response is solely
defined by the parameters used in the Excel spreadsheet. If one assumes that the PID parameters
used by the PID-optimization group were optimized, then we can say feed-forward would be
the best option here.

Feed-Forward Design Procedure

This section provides an outline of the different steps for designing a feed-forward control
strategy. The steps pay close attention to designing a feed-forward controller where there are
multiple disturbances. Feed-forward design can be broken down into eight steps (Corripio,1990).

 Step 1. State the control objective. This step includes defining which variable needs to be
controlled and what the set point is. The setpoint should be adjustable by the operator.
  Step 2. List the possible measured disturbances. This step includes identifying which
disturbances are easily measured and how fast each disturbance should be expected to
vary.
 Step 3. State which variable is going to be manipulated by the feed-forward controller.
 Step 4. The feed-forward controller consists of two parts: steady-state and dynamic
compensators. Develop the steady-state compensator first. The compensator should be an
equation where the manipulated variable, identified in step 3, can be calculated from the
measured disturbances, identified in step 2, and the control objective (set point),
identified in step 1.
 Step 5. Reevaluate the list of disturbances. The effect of a disturbance on the controlled
variable can be calculated from the equation. Three criteria will be used to determine
which disturbance the feed-forward controller will correct: the effect the disturbance has
on the controlled variable, the frequency and magnitude of variation, and the capital cost
and maintenance of the sensor.
 Step 6. Introduce the feedback compensation. This depends on the physical significance
assigned to the feedback signal.
 Step 7. Decide whether dynamic compensation, lead/lag, and/or dead time is required,
and decide how to introduce it to the design.
 Step 8. Draw the instrumentation diagram from the feed forward control strategy. The
details of the diagram depend largely on the control system being used.
Example 11.2.111.2.1
For the first example, a water stream enters an evaporator. A discrete amount of the water stream
is to be evaporated. Below is the design diagram for the evaporator. The incoming stream is
being used as the input to the feed forward control box.
Determine what additional input will be needed to regulate the amount of steam produced and
draw this on the design diagram.

Solution
By regulating the heating coil, we can regulate how much water will boil off in accordance with
any change of the feed stream.
Example 11.2.211.2.2
For the second example, a particular process liquid from a previous reaction will be heated
before proceeding to the next phase of reactions. A shell and tube heat exchanger has been
installed for this purpose with steam providing the heat duty. A feedback controller is used to
control the output temperature of the process liquid stream, but the flowrate and the temperature
of the input liquid stream vary too much for the feedback controller to be effective.
What sort of controller would be appropriate in addition to the feedback controller to account for
the deviations of the input liquid stream? How would this controller be implemented? For
simplicity it is assumed that all the steam condenses.

Solution
The solution is to implement a feed-forward controller that gathers the input temperature and
flowrate data from TC1 and FC2 and adjusts the steam valve V1 in order to account for any
deviation that may occur in the input liquid stream. This sort of feedback feed-forward
combination is a typical setup for the majority of control systems. The feed-forward controller
accounts for any upstream disturbances while the feedback controller accounts for the
disturbances within the system.
Example 11.2.311.2.3
Using the P&ID shown below, write out the feed-forward controller expressions for v3. List any
assumptions used in your controller expression.
Solution
To maintain LC1 by measuring FC1 and FC2 and preemptively adjust v3, we must use the
controller expression below.

v3=kvalves(FC1+FC2)�3=�valves(��1+��2)

The controller expression above assumes that the valve is linear. Also, it assumes that FC1, FC2,
and the model are infinitely accurate.

References
 Svrcek, William Y., Mahoney, Donald P. & Young, Brett R. (2006). A Real-Time
Approach to Process Control. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
 Astrom, Karl J. & Hagglund, Tore (1998). Advanced PID Control. Automatic Tuning of
PID Controllers. The Instrumentation Systems and Automation Society.
 Smith, Carlos A. & Corripio Armando B. (1997). Principles and Practice of Automatic
Process Control. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Contributors
Authors: Anwar Stephens, Christopher Garcia, Winardi Kusumaatmaja, Meng Yang Ng

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