TABLE OF CONTENTS Not all the topics in this category are really advanced control, but they are in some sense above and beyond basic plant floor controls. The first topic, Process Modeling, is not really control at all, but modeling is becoming increasingly important in automation, as systems become so complex that control design, checkout of configuration, and operator training all need to use process models.
The neural network type of modeling seems so academic to some people who meet it for the first time that it hardly seems worth a second glance. However, the successful application of this technology to virtual or soft sensors for things too complex to easily measure online, including stack gas composition, makes this technology something that every automation professional needs to understand.
Advanced Process Control, the second topic, is truly advanced control. Over time, what we used to call "advanced" becomes commonplace and some new things take on the advanced name. A few years ago, feedforward control was considered "advanced," but today we simply group that with the regulatory control in the Continuous Control topic. The model reference, model predictive control, and fuzzy logic are generally considered advanced today, but since these are built-in capabilities in current-generation DCS controllers, these will become so common that, in a few years, we will consider them part of basic control.
