Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 16 (2003) 681690

A glass furnace operation system using fuzzy modelling and genetic

algorithms for performance optimisation
Jo* ao M. Pina
a,
*
,1
, Pedro U. Lima
b,2
a
Faculdade de Ci # encias e Tecnologia, Monte de Caparica, Caparica 2829516, Portugal
b
Instituto Superior T! ecnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, Lisboa 1049-001, Portugal
Received 30 April 2003; received in revised form 1 October 2003; accepted 2 October 2003
Abstract
An architecture for the operation of a recuperative-type glass furnace is introduced in this paper. It is based on a hierarchical
scheme, with two main parts: process optimisation and process modelling. Process optimisation is carried out by an expert
controller, and uses genetic algorithms to solve a multiobjective optimisation problem. Process modelling is performed by a learning
system, based on a fuzzy learning-by-examples algorithm. Results of real and simulated experiments with the glass manufacturing
process are presented.
r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Process operation architecture; Glass furnace; Fuzzy modelling; Genetic algorithms; Multiobjective optimisation
1. Introduction
In the automatic operation of industrial glass furnaces
two major difculties generally arise. One is due to the
multiplicity of different criteria when it comes to its
performance optimisation. Another depends on the high
complexity of the mathematical process models, when-
ever they exist.
Multiple criteria, or objectives, some of them con-
current, may be transformed into a single one, by means
of an aggregate function (Fonseca and Fleming, 1995).
Complex problems generally present multiple para-
meters as arguments. To overcome this feature, the
hill-climbing method may be used to nd optimal
solutions (Everitt, 1987). However, aggregate functions
may not exist, due to incompatibilities in the nature of
the objectives, and the referred method does not make a
distinction between local and global optima. The
approach used in this paper to solve the multiobjective
optimisation problem is based on genetic algorithms
(GAs) (Goldberg, 1989). GAs perform parallel search,
so the local and global optima distinction problem is
reduced. Together with the preferability relation (Fon-
seca and Fleming, 1995) the difference on the nature of
the objectives is overcome.
The mathematical modelling of glass furnaces pre-
sents several difculties. Adaptive control techniques are
frequently applied to temperature (Gough and Mato-
vich, 1997) or glass level control (Black, 1990; Simon
and Wertz, 1993). Some applications employing sto-
chastic models are also referred (Dablemont and
Gevers, 1978). However, all these applications concern
particular aspects of the furnaces operation, not the
global system. The need to employ process models, in
order to evaluate different furnace operation points,
involves knowledge acquisition on the most relevant
process features. Since these models are, in most cases,
unavailable, one possible solution is to learn them from
real data. Several learning methods are described that
make use of Neural Networks (NNs) (Tzanakou, 1999).
NNs generalisation ability depends on the network
structure and, in order to interpolate a general function,
the number of units in each layer may grow exponen-
tially. Learning systems based on fuzzy logic are able to
ARTICLE IN PRESS
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +351-212949632; fax: +351-
212954461.
E-mail addresses: jpina@dee.fct.unl.pt (J.M. Pina), pal@isr.ist.
utl.pt (P.U. Lima).
1
Jo* ao M. Pina is a Teaching Assistant at the Faculdade de Ci# encias
e Tecnologia of the New University of Lisbon, Portugal.
2
Pedro U. Lima is an Assistant Professor at the Instituto Superior
T! ecnico of the Lisbon Technical University, Portugal.
0952-1976/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engappai.2003.10.002
emulate human knowledge and to deal with uncertainty.
Under certain non-restrictive conditions they are uni-
versal interpolators (Wang, 1992).
In Farmer et al. (1992) and Lima et al. (1991) some of
the concepts presented in King and Karonis (1988) are
applied to glass industry. A methodology for process
analysis and the development of an expert controller are
attained. Some of these results are extended in the
present work, which describes an operation system for
an industrial glass furnace, using fuzzy modelling and
GAs for process optimisation.
This paper introduces a novel description of an
hierarchical architecture for the operation of industrial
glass furnaces, which is appropriate for other industrial
processes; the development of an expert controller for
glass furnaces, where, in the present work, the expert
controller includes failure detection and multiobjective
optimisation, although only the latter is implemented;
and the formalisation of a model learning methodology
for a glass furnace. The paper is organised as follows: in
Section 2, the architecture of the glass furnace operation
system and the algorithms used are described; the
process information integration is referred in Section
3; the experimental results are presented in Section 4.
Conclusions are drawn in Section 5.
2. Glass furnace operation system
The glass furnace operation system presented in this
paper was developed under the NOVOVIDRO project
(Heitor et al., 1999). The glass furnace built under
NOVOVIDRO is shown schematically in Fig. 1. It is a
recuperative-type cross-red furnace, with a pull of
about 11 ton=d; working with natural gas. It has two
recuperators and two ring zones in the melting
chamber. These last ones divide the furnace
longitudinally.
2.1. The glass manufacturing process
The transformation of raw materials, named batch,
into glass is caused by heat, in glass furnaces (Trier,
1987). Batch is mixed in a composition central. Glass
melting embraces not only batch melting itself, but also
the homogenisation and rening of the resulting uid
and its subsequent distribution to be gathered and
worked into pieces. After this operation, glass pieces are
cooled down in a controlled way, in annealing lehrs, so
they can be nished and stored.
Normally present in a glass furnace are furnace
pressure, glass level, air to gas ratio and furnace
temperature control loops. The correct operation of
these control loops is essential for furnace performance.
For instance, excessive furnace pressure, glass level
oscillations, or temperatures to high, accelerate refrac-
tory wear, decreasing its lifetime and causing the
consequent appearance of impurities in glass. On the
other hand, a lower air-to-gas ratio causes energy losses
and increased pollutant emissions, due to excessive
combustible in waste gases. Therefore, these loops have
a prevailing action at different performance criteria, as
will be seen in the sequel.
2.2. Operation system hierarchical architecture
The architecture of the operation system is based on a
hierarchical scheme, depicted in Fig. 2, whose subsys-
tems are denominated Operation Goals, Organisation/
Coordination, Execution and Analysis (Pina and Lima,
1999). The system is detailed in the sequel for the glass
furnace operation case.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 1. NOVOVIDRO glass furnace. Fig. 2. Hierarchical architecture of glass furnace operation system.
J.M. Pina, P.U. Lima / Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 16 (2003) 681690 682
2.2.1. Operation goals
Operation goals may be seen as the principles that
guide process operators, such as maximise nal
product quality or minimise energy costs. The
achievement of a goal may be seen as the resolution of
an optimisation problem, namely the minimisation of a
cost function f : Several goals may lead to the presence
of concurrent solutions, which justies the need of
multiobjective or multicriteria optimisation techniques
for the attainment of trade-off solutions. In the glass
industry, ve criteria can be dened to optimise the
performance of furnace operation (Farmer et al., 1992,
Pina and Lima, 1999):
*
Glass quality maximisation;
*
Thermal efciency maximisation;
*
Furnace and refractory lifetime maximisation;
*
Pollutant production and emission minimisation;
*
Energy consumption cost minimisation.
The following cost functions are dened to quantify
these goals.
Glass quality maximisation. Glass quality is quantied
by the amount of defects in the glass, which may be of
three types: blister, stone and cord (Navarro, 1991). The
cost functions are dened as
f
1
x9D
B
x; 1
f
2
x9D
S
x; 2
f
3
x9D
C
x; 3
where D
B
; D
S
and D
C
are the percentage of blister, stone
and cord in the glass, respectively, and x is the vector
that characterises the furnace operation point, to be
described later. The maximum admissible amount of
defects, dened as g
B
; g
S
and g
C
; act as restrictions to
these objectives.
Thermal efciency maximisation. Furnace efciency,
Z; depends on the ow of natural gas and air used in
combustion, respectively, q
G
and q
A
; related by a factor,
K
A=G
; which means
Z Z q
G
; q
A
Z q
G
; K
A=G
: 4
The factor K
A=G
is slightly above the stoichiometric
relation (i.e. excess air) in order to guarantee the
maximum utilisation of the natural gas heat-production
energy. The lower the temperature required by the glass,
the more efcient will be the heat transfer, and the less
fuel will be required (Pina and Lima, 1999; Cornforth,
1992). Therefore,
f
4
x9 q
G
: 5
Furnace and refractory lifetime maximisation. This
goal is achieved ensuring the correct balance of the
pressure, glass level and temperature control loops,
provided with correct set points (Trier, 1987). No
additional objective function is needed.
Pollutant production and emission minimisation. The
main pollutant at the furnace level is NO
X
; directly
related with ames temperature. Cost functions are
f
5
x9T
1
; 6
f
6
x9T
2
; 7
where T
1
and T
2
are the furnace ring zones set points.
Energy consumption cost minimisation. One possible
cost function dening this goal is the product a q
G
;
where a is the natural gas tariff. However, this is the
same as f
4
; scaled by a constant factor.
The vector x has the following components:
x
1
N recipe number
x
2
P furnace draft kg h
1

x
3
T
rec1
recuperator 1 output air temp.

C
x
4
T
rec2
recuperator 2 output air temp.

C
x
5
T
crown
furnace crown temperature

C
x
6
T
brear
furnace bottom temp. (rear)

C
x
7
T
bfront
furnace bottom temp. (front)

C
x
8
q
G
combustion gas ow m
3
h
1

x
9
T
1
zone 1 temperature

C
x
10
T
2
zone 2 temperature

C
The restriction vector (Fonseca and Fleming, 1995) is
dened as g g
B
; g
S
; g
C
; N; N; N), where g
i
is
the restriction for objective f
i
:
2.2.2. Organisation/coordination
This level generates process set points. In this work
these are ring zones temperature set points. Concep-
tually, the organisation/coordination level is also
responsible for checking the process safeguard, through
a fault detection system, although that was not
implemented in this work. The whole subsystem
can be seen as an expert controller including a fault
handling and a process multiobjective optimisation
system (PMOS). The latter receives the operation
goals as inputs and generates temperature set points
through the resolution of a multiobjective optimis-
ation problem. An empirical analysis of the process
led to the denition of the following furnace mod-
els, according to the x components (Pina and Lima,
2002):
x
3
m
x
3
x m
rec1
x
1
; x
2
; x
9
; x
10
;
x
4
m
x
4
x m
rec2
x
1
; x
2
; x
9
; x
10
;
x
5
m
x
5
x m
crown
x
1
; x
2
; x
3
; x
4
; x
9
; x
10
;
x
6
m
x
6
x m
brear
x
1
; x
2
; x
3
; x
4
; x
5
; x
9
; x
10
;
x
7
m
x
7
x m
bfront
x
1
; x
2
; x
3
; x
4
; x
5
; x
6
; x
9
; x
10
;
x
8
m
x
8
x m
gas
x
1
; x
2
; x
3
; x
4
; x
5
; x
9
; x
10
:
ARTICLE IN PRESS
J.M. Pina, P.U. Lima / Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 16 (2003) 681690 683
The following relations were also considered (Pina and
Lima, 2002):
f
1
D
B
f
1
x
1
; x
2
; x
3
; x
4
; x
5
; x
6
; x
7
; x
8
; x
9
; x
10
;
f
2
D
S
f
1
x
1
; x
2
; x
3
; x
4
; x
5
; x
6
; x
7
; x
8
; x
9
; x
10
;
f
3
D
C
f
1
x
1
; x
2
; x
3
; x
4
; x
5
; x
6
; x
7
; x
8
; x
9
; x
10
;
f
4
q
G
x
8
;
f
5
T
1
x
9
;
f
6
T
2
x
10
:
Assuming that the control loops are able to achieve the
imposed set points, the PMOS must solve the following
multiobjective optimisation problem:
Compute x

9
and x

10
i.e., the temperature set points,
such that the objective vector
fx f
1
x; f
2
x; f
3
x; f
4
x; f
5
x; f
6
x;
subject to the furnace models and restriction vector
g
B
; g
S
; g
C
; N; N; N; is minimised.
In order to solve the multiobjective optimisation
problem, an algorithm based on the Multiobjective
Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) (Fonseca and Fleming,
1995) was used. The algorithm implements the Pareto
formalism, a suitable tool to deal with multiple criteria,
and GAs to perform parallel search. The main Pareto
denitions are
Denition 1 (Pareto Dominance). A vector f

domi-
nates another vector f
0
iff f

is partially smaller than f

0
;
i.e.
8iAf1; y; Ng: f

i
pf
0
i
4(iAf1; y; Ng: f

i
of
0
i
and is denoted by f

pof
0
:
Denition 2 (Pareto Optimality). The solution vector
x

is optimal-Pareto iff there is no other solution x

0
;
such that
f
0
f
0
xpof

x:
The set of optimal-Pareto solutions is named non-
dominated set. In real problems, a set of solutions,
rather than a single solution, exists, dening the so-
called trade-off surface. MOGA uses GA (Goldberg,
1989), as referred before, and the preferability relation
(Fonseca and Fleming, 1995) to derive the trade-off
surface. The individuals in the GA population are
formed by the concatenation of the arguments of the
multiple optimisation problem. The genetic operators
(Goldberg, 1989) used are selection/reproduction, cross-
over (with probability P
cross
; mutation (with probability
P
mut
) and an elitism strategy (Pina and Lima, 1999)
(maintaining a percentage of up to M
elit
preferable
individuals from generation n to generation n 1).
Niche formation techniques (Goldberg, 1989) are also
considered, namely tness sharing (with a percentage
sharing factor of s
share
of each argument range), and
mating restrictions (restricting mate with individuals in a
distance up to a percentage s
mate
of each argument
range). The nal solution pair, i.e., the optimal
temperature set points, T

1
; T

2
; is chosen from the
nal non-dominated solution set, taking the one that
minimises the Euclidean distance x to the current
operation point, T
0
1
; T
0
2
:
x

1
T
0
1

2
T

2
T
0
2

2
_
: 8
This is due to the well-known fact that a stable
operation is fundamental for glass quality production
(Trier, 1987; Cornforth, 1992).
2.2.3. Execution
The execution level is composed of the sub-systems
through which operators act on the process. In the
present case, these are the furnace pressure, glass level,
air-to-gas ratio and furnace temperature control loops,
implemented using programmable logic controllers and
process controllers, in the Process Monitoring and
Supervision System.
2.2.4. Analysis
The analysis subsystem is responsible for closing the
information loop by providing feedback to the expert
controller on the level of goals achievement at the
organisation/coordination level. It includes all the
existing models of the process. The main difculties in
the automatic control and operation of industrial
processes are due to errors in process parameterisations
and variables measurements, coupling of manipulated
variables, presence of non-linearities and time constants
of different orders of magnitude. Due to the absence or
extremely high complexity of analytical glass furnace
models, the analysis block was endowed with a learning
system, in order to build process models iteratively from
actual data. These models are based on IFTHEN fuzzy
rules whose syntax is
R
l
: IF

n
i1
x
i
is A
l
i
_ _
..
antecedent part
THEN y o
l
..
consequent part
;
where R
l
is the lth rule from c possible ones; x
i
is the ith
fuzzy variable from the n that compose the antecedent
part, dened in some universe of discourse (UoD); A
l
i
is
the linguistic term dened by the fuzzy set assigned to
variable x
i
in the lth rule, and characterised by the
membership function m
A
l
i
x
i
; y is the model output; o
l
is a numeric value, learned from data over time, called
fuzzy singleton.
The learning algorithm used is a recursive version of
the learning by clusters algorithm (Branco and Dente,
1998; Pina and Lima, 2002). All the membership
functions used are Gaussian and uniformly distributed
over the UoD. The inference mechanism applied is the
ARTICLE IN PRESS
J.M. Pina, P.U. Lima / Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 16 (2003) 681690 684
centroid method (Branco and Dente, 1998; Wang,
1992).
The analysis subsystem has two tasks: to feedback
production data for optimisation purposes, and to build
and update some process models. The learning sub-
system (LS) carries out the latter.
Data for optimisation. The data that the optimisation
system needs to determine the operation point is the
batch composition number and the furnace expected
average glass draft. This last one is computed according
to the production planning. The amount of glass
expected to be produced in one day is given by
#
Q
day

N
day
i1
n
i
p
i
9
where n
i
is the amount of type i products to be
produced, N
day
is the number of different products,
and p
i
is the average weight of type i products. The
expected average glass draft is
#
%
P
day

#
Q
day
DT
day
; 10
where DT
day
is the duration of furnace labouring, in
hours.
Learning system. This system builds and updates
furnace models, namely, m
rec1
; m
rec2
; m
crown
; m
brear
;
m
bfront
; m
gas
; and cost functions f
1
; f
2
; and f
3
: The
examples are dened in process time windows, which
correspond to the duration of a production shift or half
shift.
3
These windows will be made of N
J
samples. Each
week day has ve shifts, starting at 05 h 30 min and
nishing at 03 h 00 min: On Saturday there are three
shifts, starting at 05 h 30 min and nishing at
21 h 30 min: For learning purposes, Sunday is divided
in four 6 h periods, with zero draft.
The examples consist of data vectors, y
e
; whose
components are the batch composition number, N; the
shift estimated average furnace draft,
#
%
P; the recuperator
1 and recuperator 2 shift average output air tempera-
tures,
%
T
rec1
and
%
T
rec2
; the shift furnace average crown
temperature,
%
T
crown
; the shift furnace average rear and
front bottom temperature,
%
T
brear
and
%
T
bfront
; the shift
combustion average gas ow,
%
q
G
; the zone 1 and zone 2
shift average temperatures,
%
T
1
and
%
T
2
; and the shift
estimated percentages of blister, stone and cord, namely
#
D
B
;
#
D
S
and
#
D
C
: For each model, only the corresponding
components of y
e
will be used. Data coming from the
furnace is rst low pass ltered. Dening xk as the
value of a generic furnace variable x in sample time k;
the corresponding ltered signal, x
F
; is given by
x
F
0 x0;
x
F
k 1 l
F
xk l
F
x
F
k 1;
k 1; y; N
J
1; 11
where 0ol
F
o1 is the pole of the low-pass lter. It is
now possible to dene the mean value,
%
X
F
; the standard
deviation, s
x
F
; and the variation coefcient, C
V
x
F

s
x
F
=
%
X
F
100 of each variable for a certain shift. The
latter is used as an empirical criterion to dene the
number of membership functions for each model. The
mean value is used as an example if the standard
deviation is lower than a dened validation threshold,
H
X
: If this condition is not veried for at least one of the
variables, then the corresponding shift is not valid for
examples. The values that need to be estimated are the
following:
*
Shift average furnace draft,
#
%
P
shift
: due to the absence,
in the plant, of sensors to measure the amount of
batch that enters the furnace, furnace draft has to be
estimated a posteriori, using the amount of pieces
produced, according to
#
%
P
shift

#
Q
shift
DT
shift

N
shift
i1
n
i
p
i
DT
shift
; 12
where N
shift
is the number of different shift products
and DT
shift
is the shift duration.
*
Percentage of glass defects,
#
D
B
;
#
D
S
and
#
D
C
: this
information is also relative to each shift. Blister
percentage is estimated according to
#
D
B

#
Q
B
#
Q
shift
100

r
N
B
i1
n
i
p
i
#
Q
shift
100 13
where r
i
; i 1; y; N
B
; are the different products that
were marked with blister defect, in the end of the
annealing lehr. These values are supplied by the
Information and Production Support System, de-
scribed in the sequel. The same reasoning is applied
to stone and cord percentage.
2.3. Global view of the operation system
The operation system is divided in two tasks that run
at distinct levels: the optimisation subsystem and the
learning subsystem.
2.3.1. Optimisation subsystem
The analysis subsystem supplies the PMOS with the
necessary values to run the multiobjective optimisation
algorithm, which are, as referred, the number of the
batch recipe and the expected average glass draft. The
algorithm output is the ring zones temperature set
points that optimise furnace performance, based on the
existing models. This is done in the beginning of each
working day, as soon as the production planning is
available. Those set points are valid for the correspond-
ing day.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
3
From now on simply referred as shift.
J.M. Pina, P.U. Lima / Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 16 (2003) 681690 685
2.3.2. Learning subsystem
The learning system, in the analysis level, build
examples that are used to update the existing models.
This is done in the end of each shift.
3. Glass process information integration
The process operation system is not an isolated entity,
rather it is part of a global information system built by
the Process Monitoring and Supervision System (PMSS,
responsible for the gathering of all the process variables,
in the PLCs of the different process stages, through a
SCADA software and a control network), and by the
Information and Production Support System (IPSS,
which supplies data about process analysis, such as glass
defects). The hardware/software integration of these
systems is achieved through a normalised TCP/IP net-
work (plant network). This is depicted in Fig. 3. The
process operation system (PMOS and LS) and the
PMSS run in the same computer.
4. Experimental results
The furnace was monitored from 26 May to 4 June
2000. Some furnace variables are depicted in Fig. 4. This
gure makes clear the difculties that a human operator
would have to nd out the correlations between the
several process variables. However, some correlation
seems to exist between T
crown
and T
1
: Since the sample
period used in furnace monitoring was 1 h; the original
signals were linearly over-sampled and corrupted with
noise, in order to simulate a more adequate sample
period of 15 min:
By the time this work was carried out, the information
and production support system was not fully working.
The need to test the operation system imposed the
articial assignment of some values, namely, the amount
of glass produced, Q
shift
; and the percentage of glass
with defects, D
B
; D
S
; D
C
: The rst one is randomly
generated taking into account a production between 400
and 1300 kg in each shift. The estimate of the average
draft, P; is then taken dividing this value by the shift
duration, DT
shift
: The percentage of glass with the three
distinct defects is generated according to
D
B
10
P P
min
DP
_ _
20e
0:01 T
1

T
1
min
T
1max
2
_ _
2
T
2

T
2
min
T
2max
2
_ _
2
_ _
;
14
D
S
10
P P
min
DP
_ _
20
T
1
min
T
1
DT
1
1
_ _
20
T
2
min
T
2
DT
2
1
_ _
; 15
D
C
10
P
min
P
DP
1
_ _
10
T
1
T
1
min
DT
1
_ _
10
T
2
min
T
2
DT
2
1
_ _
; 16
where, T
1
min
stands for the minimum value achieved by
variable T
1
; T
1
max
its maximum value, and DT
1
is the
difference between T
1
max
and T
1
min
: The same notation is
used for variables P and T
2
: These simple models,
represented in Fig. 5 for P 414 kg h
1
; establish some
basic relations, as the increase in the amount of blister
with glass draft, or stone decrease with zone two
temperature, reported in the literature.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 3. Glass process information integration.
Fig. 4. Variables used to build examples.
J.M. Pina, P.U. Lima / Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 16 (2003) 681690 686
4.1. Furnace models learning
The UoDs of the fuzzy variables were dened
according to the range of the monitored variables, as
shown in Table 1. The validation threshold is also listed.
This was experimentally determined, for each variable,
taking into account the associated time constants. A
larger time constant imposes a smaller threshold level.
Since the associated variables are slower, they should
remain in tighter ranges, in order to be valid.
The lter pole was empirically set to l
F
0:75: The
system analyses data relative to labour and non-labour
periods, where draft is null. The former ranges from
2 h 45 min to 3 h 30 min; in weekdays, and 4 h 30 min
to 5 h 30 min on Saturday, while the latter is divided in
6 h periods on Sunday, where furnace operation is
supposed to be quite stable.
At the end of each shift, all the mean values and
standard deviations of the ltered signals are processed,
in order to validate the examples. As an example, during
the rst shift of May 31, the standard deviation is
s
T
rec2
8:16 > H
rec2
5:5: The corresponding tempera-
ture curve is plotted in Fig. 6(a)). It is clear that the
temperature is not stabilised, unlike the one registered in
the second shift of May 27, plotted in Fig. 6(b)), where
s
T
rec2
1:01:
4.1.1. Learning system parameters
The number of membership functions used for each
variable was empirically determined through the corre-
sponding variation coefcients. A smaller data relative
dispersion denes a smaller number of membership
functions. This method, although inaccurate, is ade-
quate, due to the data nature. The values used are
represented in Table 2. Due to the small amount of
examples, the total number of membership functions
was reduced, compared to that used in Pina and Lima
(2002). Taking into account the number of membership
functions, the model dimensions, i.e., the number of
singletons used, or equivalently the number of possible
rules, is simply the product of the numbers of member-
ship functions used in each model arguments times N;
the number of different batch recipes used, the only crisp
variable available. The model dimensions are shown in
Table 3.
From the 50 possible examples, only 32 were valid.
This is clearly insufcient due to the model dimensions.
Examples had to be generated from the models in order
to validate the learning system. More precisely, 100
examples were randomly generated, for a xed draft of
P 414 kg h
1
: The models built by the learning by
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 5. Articial models of glass defects, for a draft P 414 kg h
1
:
Fig. 6. Temperature curves for recuperator 2, in different periods.
Table 1
Universes of discourse and validation thresholds
Variable Lower
limit
Upper
limit
Threshold
H (std. dev.)
Unit
P 0 473 kg h
1
T
rec1
245 305 5.5

C
T
rec2
230 325 5.5

C
T
crown
1475 1505 3.0

C
T
brear
1300 1340 2.0

C
T
bfront
1320 1340 2.0

C
q
G
90 130 2.5 m
3
h
1
T
1
1420 1470 3.5

C
T
2
1465 1500 3.5

C
Table 2
Number of membership functions assignment
Variable Variation coefcient Number of membership
functions
P 54.39 4
T
rec1
3.00 3
T
rec2
4.25 3
T
crown
0.28 3
T
brear
0.58 3
T
bfront
0.31 3
q
G
7.11 3
T
1
0.55 3
T
2
0.40 3
J.M. Pina, P.U. Lima / Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 16 (2003) 681690 687
examples algorithm are represented in Fig. 7, for N 1:
It is clear that the main trends of the mathematical
models were captured. This method makes possible to
get some physical insight of the furnace behaviour under
different conditions, just by looking at the surfaces
dened by the learned models. See, e.g., the inuence of
the ring zones temperature in the recuperator 2
temperature, under the same initial draft, plotted in
Fig. 8. As known, the increase in both T
1
or T
2
leads to
an increase in T
rec2
:
4.2. Furnace performance optimisation
With furnace models available, it is possible to
optimise furnace performance. This is done whenever
production planning is available, implicitly dening the
estimated amount of glass to be produced, in a certain
day,
#
Q
day
: Once again, the estimated average draft is the
ratio of
#
Q
day
by the total furnace labour period.
4.2.1. PMOS parameters
The following values were used in all the experiments:
uniformly distributed initial population of 20 indivi-
duals, P
cross
0:6; P
mut
0:1; M
elit
10%; s
share

15%; s
mate
15% and a maximum of 1000 generations.
The expected draft was set to 414 kg h
1
and the current
operation temperature set points established as T
1

1450

C and T
2
1475

C:
An example of a population of a PMOS running is
plotted in Fig. 9, for simultaneous blister and stone
minimisation, with the most preferable individuals lled
in grey. It is clear the absence of single optimal solutions
and the formation of the trade-off surface.
The experiences presented in Table 4, using different
cost functions combinations, restricted or not, were
performed in order to test the multiobjective optimisa-
tion algorithm, and to determine furnace temperature
set points. Columns with O or a number (representing
the restriction value) correspond to the cost functions
combined for a given row/example. The results obtained
are listed in Table 5. The different experiences were:
(1) Optimise blister percentage in glass. The value of f
1
thus expresses the attainable minimum of this
function. The obtained value, 2.9%, is in accordance
with Fig. 7.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 8. Learned model of recuperator 2 temperature, for a draft
P 414 kg h
1
:
Table 3
Model dimensions
Model Dimension
T
rec1
N 63
T
rec2
N 63
T
crown
N 1575
T
brear
N 4725
T
bfront
N 14175
q
G
N 1575
D
B
N 212625
D
S
N 212625
D
C
N 212625
Fig. 7. Learned models of glass defects, for a draft P 414 kg h
1
:
Compare with articial models in Fig. 5.
Fig. 9. Trade-off surface for the blister and stone minimisation
problem.
J.M. Pina, P.U. Lima / Engineering Applications of Articial Intelligence 16 (2003) 681690 688
(2) Optimise stone percentage in glass. The value of f
2
expresses the attainable minimum of this function,
9.6%, which is in accordance with Fig. 7. The
decrease in stone implied an increase in gas
consumption and in T
2
:
(3) Optimise cord percentage in glass. The value of f
3
expresses the attainable minimum of this function,
11.9%, which is in accordance with Fig. 7.
(4) Global optimisation of glass quality. As expected,
there is a degradation in the percentage of glass
defects, relatively to the individual optimisation,
corresponding to a compromise solution.
(5) Same as before, but with stone restricted to 15%. In
order to meet the restriction, the other defects are
degraded.
(6) Simultaneous optimisation of blister percentage and
gas consumption. The result is the same as 1.
(7) Same as before, with the additional minimisation of
T
1
: The increase in blister percentage and in gas
consumption lead to the decrease in T
1
:
(8) Global optimisation with restrictions in all the
objectives. Objectives f
1
; f
2
and f
6
achieve goals,
while the others do not. This is justied by the fact
that, most plausibly, there is no solution for this
problem. Other non-dominated solution is found to
be f
1
4:3; f
2
13:9; f
3
20:3; f
4
103:3; f
5

1468 and f
6
1487: Again, three objectives match
the goals ( f
1
; f
2
and f
4
), although the decision
criterion (8) is degraded.
5. Conclusions
In this paper, an architecture for the operation system
of industrial glass furnaces was proposed. This archi-
tecture is extendable to other industrial processes, and is
based on an expert controller responsible for process
optimisation and failure detection. The operation
system also comprises a learning system, in order to
build furnace models. The experimental results pre-
sented are based on a blending of real and articial data.
In spite of this fact, and in the available data exiguity,
the system is able to capture the main trends and
relations between process variables, enabling a multi-
objective process optimisation algorithm to determine
the optimal set points. The presented system was able to
deal with several practical difculties, without much
alteration of the existing conditions, at a process human
level. These difculties were the glass draft long term
unpredictability, determined only in the beginning of
each working day; the absence of some important
sensors; the strong opposition to changes and to the
introduction of new technology in this kind of industry;
the difculty in the quantication of glass defects; the
enormous uncertainty associated with this process; and
the huge process delays and different time constants
involved. Future work will focus on the improvement of
the learning algorithms and the development of a fault
detection system, in order to enable full automatic
operation of the glass furnace.
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Table 4
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f
3
f
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f
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f
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D
B
D
S
D
C
q
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T
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1 O
2 O
3 O
4 O O O
5 O 15 O
6 O O
7 O O O
8 5 20 12 105 1450 1475
Table 5
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f
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f
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D
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S
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