The control of large multivariable industrial processes whose dynamics is either unknown or vague-makes a very serious challenge in Process Control. The hitherto available conventional, classical techniques were very limited, complex and rarely satisfactory. Modern multivariable control theory, though powerful, has also met with limited application in the process industry. With the uncertainty and vagueness which are invariably present in the process dynamics, statistical techniques have not proved generally successful either. Over the last fifteen years or so, the process industry has made serious progress in putting Fuzzy Logic into practice. Indeed numerous successful applications in a variety of process industries have been reported and more, no doubt, will be reported as the technique diffuses into the process industry with time. The design of Fuzzy Controllers today is very much an art and there are few effective design tools available now for their development. Regrettably, this fact has considerably limited their application. To this end, this paper describes a PC-based, integrated development system which is flexible and let the controller designer test hypotheses, examine rule validity and rule conflict, examine the effect of changes in the controller parameters and perform a complete off-line simulation of a proposed Multivariable Fuzzy Controller.
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