Neural network–based soft sensors have had limited application for two reasons.
First, traditional neural net development is a fairly complicated task requiring extensive third-party expert intervention.
Second, neural nets do not handle changes in process operation over time very well, and they often need retraining.
By embedding the neural net function block in the process control system and automating the model development, benefits of neural net techniques can be easily applied to a variety of processes without the overheads incurred in traditional implementations.
An intuitive and user-friendly graphical user interface minimizes the engineering and implementation effort while maintaining the underlying neural net technology. Several enhancements to the online operation of the model increase its lifetime and maintainability even in the presence of unmeasured disturbances and process drift.
This is the next generation of easy-to-use neural net applications in process control systems