Performance analysis of model-free PID tuning of MIMO systems based on simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation

•We present a performance comparison of SPSA based methods for PID tuning of MIMO systems.•The performance is analyzed in terms of the stability of the closed-loop system, tracking performance and computation time.•The GSPSA algorithm is the most practical in terms of the stability and the tracking performance.

This paper addresses the performance comparison of simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation (SPSA) based methods for PID tuning of MIMO systems. Four typical SPSA based methods, which are one-measurement SPSA (1SPSA), two-measurement SPSA (2SPSA), Global SPSA (GSPSA) and Adaptive SPSA (ASPSA) are examined. Their performances are evaluated by extensive simulation for several controller design examples, in terms of the stability of the closed-loop system, tracking performance and computation time. In addition, the performance of the SPSA based methods are compared to the other stochastic optimization based approaches. It turns out that the GSPSA based algorithm is the most practical in terms of the stability and the tracking performance.