Nonlinear PID controller parameter optimization using modified hybrid artificial bee colony algorithm for continuous stirred tank reactor

The artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm is well known and widely used optimization method based on swarm intelligence, and it is inspired by the behavior of honeybees searching for a high amount of nectar from the flower. However, this algorithm has not been exploited sufficiently. This research paper proposes a novel method to analyze the exploration and exploitation of ABC. In ABC, the scout bee searches for a source of random food for exploitation. Along with random search, the scout bee is guided by a modified genetic algorithm approach to locate a food source with a high nectar value. The proposed algorithm is applied for the design of a nonlinear controller for a continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The statistical analysis of the results confirms that the proposed modified hybrid artificial bee colony (HMABC) achieves consistently better performance than the traditional ABC algorithm. The results are compared with conventional ABC and nonlinear PID (NLPID) to show the superiority of the proposed algorithm. The performance of the HMABC algorithm-based controller is competitive with other state-of-the-art meta-heuristic algorithm-based controllers in the literature.