Abstract
Manual tuning of Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is time consuming, tedious and generally lead to poor performance. PID controller is a simple and intuitive feedback-based control mechanism being useful to track set points and to reject disturbances. This paper presents a computational Intelligence (CI) technique of Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) for tuning the PID controller parameters for inverted pendulum. The inverted pendulum is a benchmark problem in control system design because of its high level of instability and non-linearity. It can mimic the behaviour of open-loop unstable systems such as robot manipulator and missile launcher. The metaheuristic algorithm achieved rise time (0.0913), settling time (1.57), maximum overshot (7.9%) and steady-state error (0.0294). Simulation results demonstrated that the WOA-optimized PID controller can provide an improved closed-loop performance over the Ziegler- Nichols tuned PID controller Parameters. The computational intelligence approach also has superior features, such as easy implementation, stable convergence characteristic and good computational efficiency over the conventional methods of Ziegler- Nichols.

Key words: PID Controller, Tuning, Whale Optimization Algorithm, Metaheuristic Algorithm, Zeigler-Nichols