Experimental Robustness Tests of Fuzzy Logical Controller of Temperature and Temperature Slope Change in an Electric Resistance Chamber Furnace

Abstract

The paper presents an innovated hardware and software platform for the implementation of the fuzzy controller for temperature and temperature slope change in an electric resistance chamber furnace. The point of this paper is to present the modern hardware and software tools that we used to lift up the base for continuation of the research done in the laboratory for electrical heating of Faculty of electrical engineering, University of Belgrade, more than 15 years ago. In that period, also the robustness of control in respect to the amount of load in the furnace was investigated. The next item of study of the robustness of the fuzzy controller is investigation which will show if the controller can be applied as "plug and play controller", i.e. if the controller can be applied without additional tuning on another furnace with the similar construction in respect to the one where the fuzzy controller is tuned. The paper presents the experimental results of study if "plug and play controller" is practically realistic. The experiments were performed on two electric chamber furnaces with different rated power and volumes.