Combined ACO algorithm — Nelder-Mead simplex search for controller and anti-windup tuning for a motion system with flexible transmission

Optimal controller and anti-windup tuning for motion systems with flexible coupling and cascaded loops control structure is a practical and difficult problem, in particular when time scale separation is insufficient. An Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) based methodology for global off-line tuning of Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers with anti-windup can be used at the expense of excessive computation time. A new hybrid algorithm based on ACO and Nelder-Mead (NM) improves computation time to reach accurate optimal solutions. This hybrid algorithm handles large sets of parameters to tune and the designer can modify or create new performance indices to fully grasp the desired behavior with multi-objective criteria.