Fuzzy Controller for an Air Conveyor Bottling Plant

This paper describes the realization of an air transportation bottling plant controller, designed with fuzzy rules and implemented with a PLC and a PC. The plant was previously controlled by a semiautomatic system which was only able to accept pressure set-points from human operators and to maintain them constant, using pressure sensors. The setting of pressure levels was in general variable according to the shape of the bottles, but the system was not able to impose the right pressure level inside the different sections of the frame to maintain a constant velocity of the bottles along the whole production line, so there were often jamming conditions, with consequent block of the line. To avoid these situations and to completely automate the plant, a fuzzy controller has been implemented, since a physical model of the plant was not available, but operators were able to describe precise control rules to be followed.