Real-time synchronization of batch trajectories for on-line multivariate statistical process control using Dynamic Time Warping

This paper addresses the real-time monitoring of batch processes with multiple different local time trajectories of variables measured during the process run. For Unfold Principal Component Analysis (U-PCA)—or Unfold Partial Least Squares (U-PLS)-based on-line monitoring of batch processes, batch runs need to be synchronized, not only to have the same time length, but also such that key events happen at the same time. An adaptation from Kassidas et al.'s approach [1] will be introduced to achieve the on-line synchronization of batch trajectories using the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm. In the proposed adaptation, a new boundaries definition is presented for accurate on-line synchronization of an ongoing batch, together with a way to adapt mapping boundaries to batch length. A relaxed greedy strategy is introduced to avoid assessing the optimal path each time a new sample is available. The key advantages of the proposed strategy are its computational speed and accuracy for the batch process context. Data from realistic simulations of a fermentation process of the Saccharomyces cerevisae cultivation are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed strategy.