A new method of scaling the gramian based input-output pairing methods for improved results

A key problem in the application of process control systems is to decide which inputs should control which outputs. There are multiple ways to solve this problem, among them using gramian based measures, which include the Hankel interaction index array, the participation matrix and the Σ2 method. These methods take into account system dynamics as opposed to many other methods which only consider the steady-state system. However, the gramian based methods have issues with input and output scaling. Generally, this is resolved by scaling all inputs and outputs to have equal range. We will, however, demonstrate how this can result in an incorrect pairing. Further, we examine scaling of the gramian based measures, using either row or column sums, or by utilizing the Sinkhorn-Knopp algorithm instead.Then, to more systematically analyze the benefits of the scaling schemes, a multiple input multiple output model generator is used to test the different schemes on a large number of systems. This, along with implementation of automatic controller tuning, allows for a statistical comparison of the scaling methods. This assessment shows considerable benefits to be gained from the alternative scaling of the gramian based measures, especially when using the Sinkhorn-Knopp algorithm. The use of this method also has the advantage that the results are completely independent of the original scaling of the inputs and outputs