RESEARCH PAPER
Hybrid Control Approach for a Three-Tank Non-Interacting System
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1
Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Sai Gon University, Viet Nam
2
Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Vinh Long University of Technology Education, Viet Nam
Submission date: 2025-12-02
Final revision date: 2026-07-14
Acceptance date: 2026-07-15
Publication date: 2026-08-14
Corresponding author
Thien Leminh HUYNH
Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Sai Gon University, 273 An Duong Vuong, 700000, Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam
Acta Mechanica et Automatica 2026;20(3):639-646
HIGHLIGHTS
- Hybrid fuzzy–super-twisting controller for three-tank level regulation
- Chattering is suppressed while ensuring finite-time tracking
- Fuzzy system adaptively tunes super-twisting gains k1 and k2
- Outperforms PID, PID-Fuzzy, and neural predictive controllers
- Maintains zero steady-state error under noise and parameter changes
KEYWORDS
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ABSTRACT
This article presents a control strategy that combines a super-twisting sliding-mode reaching law with a fuzzy inference system to regulate the liquid level in the third tank of a three-tank non-interacting process. This type of plant is widely used in contemporary industrial process automa-tion, particularly in applications such as petroleum refining, distillation operations, and pulp manufacturing. To obtain the target liquid level, a slid-ing-mode controller employing the super-twisting algorithm is formulated to guarantee finite-time convergence of the tank level to the reference value, thereby improving robustness and tracking precision while inherently mitigating chattering. The fuzzy system is incorporated to estimate the parameters of the super-twisting reaching law adaptively. System stability under the proposed control scheme is demonstrated through Lya-punov analysis with explicit gain conditions. MATLAB/Simulink simulations are carried out and benchmarked against a conventional fuzzy logic controller, a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) fuzzy logic controller, a PID controller using the Amigo tuning rule, and a neural network-based predictive controller. Compared with the selected benchmark controllers, the proposed method achieves faster transient response, zero overshoot, zero steady-state error, and a significantly reduced integral time absolute error (ITAE), while maintaining a competitive integral abso-lute error (IAE). The rise time is 1.6385 s, the settling time is 3.0398 s, and the IAE and ITAE values are 12.37 and 19.58, respectively.
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