Harsh Kaji, Shruti Annigeri, Prof.

Prafulla Patil / International Journal of Engineering

Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 3, Issue 2, March -April 2013, pp.1329-1333

Designing PID Controller using LabVIEW for Controlling Fluid

Level of Vessel
Harsh Kaji, Shruti Annigeri,*Prafulla Patil

Instrumentation Department, Vidyavardhinis College of Engineering and Technology

*Professor, Instrumentation, Vidyavardhinis College of Engineering and Technology

ABSTRACT
The primary aim of our project is to
replace the PID instrument with virtual PID that
has equal controlling capabilities as that of
instrument. This designing is possible on
software called LabVIEW developed by National
Instruments. We also intend to use a DAQ card
for interfacing with the hardware. This DAQ
card is product of the same company National
Instruments. The hardware is a Multiloop
Trainer Kit mounted with a tank whose level has
to be controlled using a feedback control loop.
The flow of project execution is: The designed
PID will be generating the necessary controlling
electronic signal. This signal will be acquired by
DAQ card. The DAQ card transfers it to the I to
P converter which will convert the electrical
pulses 4-20mA into pneumatic signal 3-15psig to
actuate the control valve. This conversion take
place as the control valve acts on pneumatic
signals only. The control valve controls the fluid
flow to maintain the fluid level in tank. The tank
is fitted with a capacitive level sensor and a
transmitter. This assembly takes the level
readings from tank and transmits it to the DAQ
card. These values are called process values and
are further processed into the designed PID. This
way a closed loop system is formed.
KEYWORDS
DAQ
card
(Data
Acquisition),LabVIEW
(Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering
workbench),PID.

INTRODUCTION
In the present era of Industrial Automation,
ease of work is one of the major concerns. This
design enables the operator to operate the process
sophisticatedly with an ease. Instead of giving
manual inputs to the PID, this designed PID can
adjust the input parameters just by mouse clicks.
Firstly what is a control system?
A control system is a device, or set of devices to
manage, command, direct or regulate the behavior
of other device(s) or system(s). There are two
common classes of control systems: logic or
sequential controls, and feedback or linear controls.
There is also fuzzy logic, which attempts to combine
some of the design simplicity of logic with the
utility of linear control.

I. PID THEORY
The P stands for proportional control, I
for integral control and D for derivative control.
This is also what is called a three term controller.
The basic function of a controller is to execute an
algorithm (electronic controller) based on the
control engineer's input (tuning constants), the
operators desired operating value (set point) and the
current plant process value. In most cases, the
requirement is for the controller to act so that the
process value is as close to the set point as possible.
In a basic process control loop, the control engineer
utilizes the PID algorithms to achieve this.
Proportional action: It simply amplifies the error
based upon the gain. P mode generates offset.
Integral action: The integral term magnifies the
effect of long-term steady-state errors, applying
ever-increasing effort until they reduce to zero. In
the example of the furnace, working at various
temperatures, if the heat being applied does not
bring the furnace up to set point, for whatever
reason, integral action
increasingly moves the
proportional band relative to the set point until the
PV error is reduced to zero and the set point is
achieved. In the furnace example, suppose the
temperature is increasing towards a set point at
which, say, 50% of the available power will be
required for steady-state. At low temperatures,
100% of available power is applied. When the PV is
within, say 10 of the SP the heat input begins to be
reduced by the proportional controller. (Note that
this implies a 20 "proportional band" (PB) from
full to no power input, evenly spread around the set
point value). At the set point the controller will be
applying 50% power as required, but stray stored
heat within the heater sub-system and in the walls of
the furnace will keep the measured temperature
rising beyond what is required. At 10 above SP, we
reach the top of the proportional band (PB) and no
power is applied, but the temperature may continue
to rise even further before beginning to fall back.
Eventually as the PV falls back into the PB, heat is
applied again, but now the heater and the furnace
walls are too cool and the temperature falls too low
before its fall is arrested, so that the oscillations
continue.
Derivative action: The derivative part is concerned
with the rate-of-change of the error with time: If the
measured variable approaches the set point rapidly,

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Harsh Kaji, Shruti Annigeri, Prof. Prafulla Patil / International Journal of Engineering
Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 3, Issue 2, March -April 2013, pp.1329-1333
then the actuator is backed off early to allow it to
coast to the required level; conversely if the
measured value begins to move rapidly away from
the set point, extra effort is applied in proportion to
that rapidity to try to maintain it. Derivative action
makes a control system behave much more
intelligently. On control systems like the tuning of
the temperature of a furnace, or perhaps the motioncontrol of a heavy item like a gun or camera on a
moving vehicle, the derivative action of a welltuned PID controller can allow it to reach and
maintain a set point better than most skilled human
operators could. If derivative action is over-applied,
it can lead to oscillations too. An example would be
a PV that increased rapidly towards SP, then halted
early and seemed to "shy away" from the set point
before rising towards it again.

II.

HOW A PID CONTROLLER WORK

The PID controllers job is to maintain the output at

a level so that there is no difference (error) between
the process variable (PV) and the set point (SP).

Once the PID controller has the process variable

equal to the set point, a good PID controller will not
vary the output. You want the output to be very
steady (not changing). If the valve is constantly
changing, instead of maintaining a constant value,
this could case more wear on the control element.
So there are these two contradictory goals. Fast
response (fast change in output) when there is a
"process upset", but slow response (steady output)
when the PV is close to the set point.
Note that the output often goes past (over shoots)
the steady-state output to get the process back to the
set point. For example, a cooler may normally have
its cooling valve open 34% to maintain zero degrees
(after the cooler has been closed up and the
temperature settled down). If someone opens the
cooler, walks in, walks around to find something,
then walks back out, and then closes the cooler door
--the PID controller is freaking out because the
temperature may have raised 20 degrees! So it may
crank the cooling valve open to 50, 75, or even 100
percent -- to hurry up and cool the cooler back down
-- before slowly closing the cooling valve back
down to 34 percent.

The above formula is the classic PID formula.

Where Kp is Proportional constant, Ki is Integral
constant and Kd is Derivative constant and et is
error. The level of fluid in vessel is controlled by
using feedback flow scheme.
In the diagram shown above the valve
could be controlling the gas going to a heater, the
chilling of a cooler, the pressure in a pipe, the flow
through a pipe, the level in a tank, or any other
process control system. What the PID controller is
looking at is the difference (or "error") between the
PV and the SP. It looks at the absolute error and the
rate of change of error. Absolute error means -- is
there a big difference in the PV and SP or a little
difference? Rate of change of error means -- is the
difference between the PV or SP getting smaller or
larger
as
time
goes
on.
When there is a "process upset", meaning, when the
process variable or the set point quickly changes the PID controller has to quickly change the output
to get the process variable back equal to the set
point. If you have a walk-in cooler with a PID
controller and someone opens the door and walks in,
the temperature (process variable) could rise very
quickly. Therefore the PID controller has to increase
the cooling (output) to compensate for this
temperature
rise.

III.

MULTI-LOOP
(FLOW LOOP)

TRAINER

KIT

The loop consists of mainly one flow meter and one

final control element to regulate and control the
flow through loop. To make the process real time
work and remotely operable, signals from transducer
and output to control valve is connected to computer
via. Input Output card. Above mentioned loop is a
part
of
Trainer
kit

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Harsh Kaji, Shruti Annigeri, Prof. Prafulla Patil / International Journal of Engineering
Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 3, Issue 2, March -April 2013, pp.1329-1333
The vital requirement to achieve project objective is
NI LabVIEW 7.1 Front panel is the GUI wherein
the operator sets the PID input parameters as per the
requirements along with various graphical and
pictorial representations of the process. And the
block diagram executes the PID algorithm.
Front panel:
The front panel designed for the project consists of a
Table selector which selects SIMULATION and
ACTUAL INTERFACING. The simulation
simulates the feedback loop of level control of the
multiloop trainer kit. The actual interfacing inputs
the PID parameters. PID output which proportionate
the required current to operate I/P convertor which
indirectly operates the control valve.

IV.

SOFTWARE
CONFIGURATION
AND IMPLEMENTATION

The above screen shot depicts the simulation of

feedback level control loop of Multi-loop trainer

kit. The sequential logic for the simulation is as

follows:

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Harsh Kaji, Shruti Annigeri, Prof. Prafulla Patil / International Journal of Engineering
Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 3, Issue 2, March -April 2013, pp.1329-1333

The vital functions used are Case structure, while

loops, timing functions, Booleans indication
control valves, Arithmetic, Dialogue generator etc.
This figure is the screen shot of the front panel of
the designed PID controller.

Process value (PV): Its the output transmitted by

the level sensor.
Block Diagram: It is the place where the algorithm
executes.

This figure is the screen shot of the front panel of

the designed PID controller.
PID input parameters:
Proportional gain (Kp): Its the gain constant for
P mode
Integral gain (Ki): Its the gain constant for I
mode
Derivative gain (Kd): Used for D mode
Set point(SP): It is the target value that the PID
will aim to reach

The above block diagram is the logic of

designed PID controller. The input that is the PV is
accepted by the DAQ card using DAQ assist. And
the PID output is fed to the DAQ card using
another DAQ assist. This output is then converted
to current signal using V ti I converter designed by
using
Op-Amps.

V.

In addition to the industrial applications, the

educational importance is noteworthy. It boosts
academic interaction with latest technology.
Students can put one step forward than curriculum.

BENEFITS OF THE APPLICATION

This project replaces the conventional PID

instrument with a virtual controller. It saves time of
manufacturing of instrument. Since the PID logic
can be designed on LabVIEW in a very short
period, as the manufacturing of instrument requires
plenty of skills which cannot be implemented in a
short span of time. Practically this application
needs no maintenance and very easy to upgrade.
Whereas instruments require timely maintenance
and their up-gradations is very difficult.

VI. CONCLUSION
The experimental investigations in NI
LabVIEW show that the new system developed
would be highly flexible and easy in controlling the
level. This new system will create a new era in the
field of Process Automation.

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Harsh Kaji, Shruti Annigeri, Prof. Prafulla Patil / International Journal of Engineering
Research and Applications (IJERA) ISSN: 2248-9622 www.ijera.com
Vol. 3, Issue 2, March -April 2013, pp.1329-1333
REFERENCES
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2.

3.

4.

Paper Entitled A Laboratory Experiment

To Teach Closed-Loop By Elsa De
Klerk, IEEE Transactions On Education,
Vol. 47, No. 2, May 2004
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ULTRASONICS,
FERROELECTRICS,
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NO. 4, JULY 1993
Paper Entitled An Automated Feedback
System For Computer Organization
Project By Peter M. Chen, IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION,
VOL. 47, NO. 2, MAY 2004
Paper Entitled A Systematic Method For
Gain Selection Of Robust Pid Control For
Nonlinear Plants Of Second-Order
Controller
Canonical Form By,
Pyung
Hun
Chang,
IEEE
TRANSACTIONS
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CONTROL
SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 17,
NO. 2, MARCH 2009

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