| The thermoforming process involves plastic sheet heating in order to mould it by vacuum. The operator sets heaters temperature manually. Therefore, the operator must continuously correct the settings during his workday because the ambient temperature varies. An inaccurate heating process of the plastic sheet leads to quality problems and flaws. Consequently, the operating cost increases.The main goal of this project is to automate the settings usually made by the operator himself. To achieve this goal, we develop a terminal iterative learning control based on fuzzy logic. The intuitive character of fuzzy logic is a really interesting aspect since it is less mathematic. Indeed, we propose in this project a method to develop a fuzzy decoupling module. We only used the data from the thermoforming oven to obtain our module. This module simplifies the implantation of the controller since the equivalent systems become single-in and single-out. Under specific constrains, the proposed approach reduces perturbation effects within an acceptable range of 5°C in less than five heating cycles. Thus, the quality problems should decrease because the settings are continuously optimized even though the environment changes. |
