Harmony search based particle swarm optimisation approach for optimal PID control in electroslag remelting process

In this paper, electroslag remelting (ESR) furnace process is considered and control schemes including multivariable decoupling, fuzzy self-tuning time-delay and harmony search based particle swarm optimisation (HSPSO) approach for optimal PID control are given. Especially, harmony search (HS) provides a new method of producing new individuals to complement the shortcoming of weak local search in PSO algorithm. Also, excellent global optimisation performance of HSPSO is demonstrated by comparing with other intelligent algorithms. Finally, the proposed control schemes are applied in 3t Consarc ESR furnace, which demonstrates the effectiveness and adaptability of the proposed method in industrial application.