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Magazine Articles
 
November 2022
InTech Plus

CyboSoft Awarded a New U.S. Patent for Its Flare Smoke Auto-Detection Technology
CyboSoft, the developer of Model-Free Adaptive (MFA) control technology and products, announced that it has recently been awarded a U.S. patent that enhances its patent portfolio in advanced control and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The awarded US Patent 11,462,089, “Smoke Auto-Detection and Control for Industrial Flares," has significant technical and economical benefits.

     
May 2016
Oil, Gas & Petrochem Equipment
CyboSoft Introduces Flare Process Control Solution to Help Industries Comply with EPA Rules
EPA is ramping up its enforcement actions to investigate illegal air emissions by industrial flares. Since EPA will want to see the flare net heating value data from the previous 5 years when they issue a Clean Air Act (CAA) section 114 letter, it is very important for all flare operators to install a real-time heating value sensor and control system to comply with the limits and save records.

CyboSoft CEO Dr. George Cheng said, “We have the technology, products, and experience in flare control and want to help the industry effectively control this complex and difficult process.”

     
April 2016
Control Magazine
Simulation shows the ROI of better pH control
Despite the increasing sophistication of today's regulatory and advanced controls, pH of process and effluent fluids remains a technical backwater. "Ironically, about 90% of industrial wastewater pH processes are still controlled by on-off, bang-bang control, resulting in chemical reagent wastes, equipment corrosion and environmental pollution," says George S. Cheng, CEO, CyboSoft.
     
March 2016
North American Clean Energy
Designing a Scalable On/Off-Grid Solar Power System
Changes in temperature, precipitation, and sea level due to global warming are causing severe weather events which can shut down power grids for hours and even weeks. Since modern infrastructure is built upon electricity, losing grid power causes significant disruption and hardship. There is a growing need to have backup power readily available when natural disasters occur.
     
March 2016
WebWire
CyboSoft Introduces Flare Process Control Solution to Help Industries Comply with EPA Rules
CyboSoft (Rancho Cordova, California), the developer of Model-Free Adaptive (MFA) control technology and products, today announced that it has developed a flare process control solution that can effectively control the flare vent gas heating value to meet EPA regulations.
     
February 2016
Solar Power World Online
Solar Power World Online - 2015 Top Solar Inverter Products
CYBOENERGY: On/Off-Grid CyboInverter - The 4-channel 1.2-kW On/Off-Grid CyboInverter has an on-grid output port and an off-grid output port. When the grid is on, it works like an on-grid inverter. When the grid goes down, it automatically switches to off-grid mode providing backup power. Each input channel has its own MPPT to maximize power production.
     
January 2016
Sacramento Business Journal
Patent records show which local firms, inventors are on the cutting edge
"Cheng, whose related companies are CyboSoft and CyboEnergy, won four patents in 2015, and two the year earlier. Three were for various innovations in mini-inverters for solar photovoltaic arrays. Another was for an adaptive controller for advanced power plants."
     
August 2015
Solar Power World
Q&A: CyboEnergy solar inverters offer benefits of central, string and micro
"California-based CyboEnergy, a subsidiary of control and automation company CyboSoft, has developed what it calls a ‘mini inverter‘ with benefits of both central inverters and microinverters. At its booth at Intersolar 2015, the company showed how its CyboInverters can operate in either on-grid or off-grid mode. A time-based grid power injection feature also allows energy to be stored in batteries and sent to the grid during peak power hours to help grid stability."
     
July 2015
Engineering.com
CyboInverter Give More Options for Renewable Energy
"Two years ago I introduced you to the CyboInverter, a "mini-inverter" that combines the best features of string inverters and microinverters. (For more comparisons between string inverters and microinverters, click here.) In that article I wondered why they didn't make a model that could work both on and off the grid. I guess they took my comment seriously because a few weeks ago, Dr. George S. Cheng, chief technical officer of CyboEnergy, contacted me and told me about their newest CyboInverter: a hybrid On-Off Grid inverter. Dr. Cheng believes that CyboEnergy's multimode mini-inverter is the only one of its kind in the industry, so let's take a look at what it does."
     
June 2015
PV Magazine
Off-grid digest for June 19
"Tanzania primed for micro and off-grid projects, new on and off-grid inverter and other African opportunities. A fortnight's off-grid news, curated by specialist editor Pete Carvill"
     
April 2015
North American Clean Energy
On/Off-Grid Solar Power Mini-Inverter
By Dr. George S. Cheng
Climate change in our world is becoming more catastrophic. Power grid brownouts and shutdowns are more frequent and severe, resulting in loss of production and personal hardship. Solar power backup systems are getting more popular but solar power is wasted when the grid is on. This is because the off-grid power inverters used in backup systems are designed to power AC loads, which cannot send power to the grid.
     
April 2015
Solar + Power Management
CyboEnergy Awarded U.S. Patent For Off-Grid And Micro-Grid Inverters
CyboEnergy has announced that the company has been awarded U.S. patent 8,994,218 entitled “Smart and Scalable Off-Grid Mini-Inverters.”

This award follows the CyboEnergy 2014 U.S. patent 8,786,133, entitled "Smart and Scalable Power Inverters," covering the unique inverter design with multiple input channels, each of which has its own control and MPPT, solving partial shading problems, maximizing power production, reducing costs and making rooftop solar safer to install and operate.

     
July 2014
North American Clean Energy
A Solar Power Micrcogrid With or without batteries by
Dr. George S. Cheng

"Although energy storage based microgrids are attracting a lot of attention and investment, there's a niche for battery-less microgrids. There is a new type of off-grid solar power inverter that can be used with or without batteries. As there are many off-grid solar applications where batteries aren't actually needed, battery-less microgrids are a possibility not previously offered in the industry."
     
May 2010
Control Magazine
CyboSoft's MFA Technology Now Available for ControlLogix Running inside ProSoft's PC56 industrial in-rack PC, CyboSoft's CyboCon high-speed MFA control software is seamlessly integrated with the ControlLogix system, providing high-speed, mission-critical control for industrial and equipment control applications.
     
April 2010
Water & Wastes Digest

Keeping pH in Its Place
Industrial process water treatment and recycling have become important social and economic issues, especially with freshwater becoming a scarce resource. In a large iron and steel complex, significant amounts of wastewater are produced and need to be treated. If not done properly and efficiently, wastewater treatment can be costly and time consuming. Poor pH control remains the key problem because it causes excessive dosing of chemicals, resulting in high water treatment costs and low efficiency.

Link to article

     
February 2010
Control Engineering-Europe

Model-Free Adaptive Control: Impact on the Automation Industry
MFA technology has been fulfilling its promise as a ‘next-generation mainstream controller.’ Since its introduction to the automation industry in the late 1990s, the technology has been implemented by a number of end-users and embedded in OEM equipment by a host of process control, equipment control, and building automation vendors.

Link to article

     
August 2008
Control Magazine

New MFA Control Toolbox - Helping Automation Engineers Solve Various Tough Control Problems
"This product can help bridge the gap between the academic and industrial world because it’s the only off-line control simulation software for which a number of field-proven, real-time control products of the same family are available," says CyboSoft CEO Dr. George Cheng. "They include many MFA control products offered by CyboSoft and various MFA-embedded or integrated products and systems offered by vendors in the process control, machine control and building control markets."

Link to article

   
August 2008
Control Design

CyboSoft releases Control Toolbox for MATLAB
Control design engineers typically use PID controllers or model-based control design tools to design control systems.

To help automation engineers solve various tough control problems, CyboSoft released a major revision to its model-free adaptive MFA Control Toolbox for MatLab software. Model-free adaptive control, as its name suggests, is an adaptive and robust control method that does not require process models. Based on the core MFA technology, CyboSoft developed a set of general-purpose MFA controllers, each of which solves a tough control problem.

Link to article

   
October 2007
Hydrocarbon Processing

Model-free adaptive control technology enables ethylene quench water pH control
PetroChina has improved ethylene production efficency and plant safety

In this article, we will present what it takes to effectively control these most challenging pH loops and describe how model-free adaptive (MFA) control is enabling PetroChina to improve its ethylene production efficiency and plant safety. We will also discuss how and where MFA was applied controlled technology in broad application areas to solve various tough control problems within PetroChina to improve process and gain a more competitive advantage.

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September 2006
InTech

pH control nerves of steel
A steel caster is the most critical operating unit in a modern steel plant. . The caster transforms the liquid steel into solid slabs, ready for the rolling mill to produce the final product, steel sheets.

Let's look at what it takes to control effectively the caster cooling water temperature and pickle-line rinse water pH value. This feature will also discuss model-free adaptive (MFA) control technology, which is helping Nucor Steel to improve product quality and plant efficiency.

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Spring/Summer 2006
Industrial Embedded Systems

Faster is Better: High-speed Model-Free Adaptive Control
Editor: Adaptive control is helping create faster, more accurate control for many applications. In this article, control industry leader Dr. George Cheng describes the concepts behind Model-Free Adaptive (MFA) control and shows its benefits compared to Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) and model-based control. He also highlights the elements of a real-world application in piezomotor control.

Since the beginning of time there has been a desire to move life along at a faster pace. In our world today, speed is often the most decisive factor between winning and losing. This faster is better rule impacts our industry in a huge way. In high-end motion control, customers demand subnanometer accuracy and submicrosecond control update rates.

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4/01/2006
Automation World

Improved Loop Control for Complex Systems
CyboSoft has developed a model-free adaptive (MFA) controller, based on the intelligent nature of neural networks, which has replaced and is replacing PID controllers and tuners. …. One company that is replacing its PID controllers with CyboSoft’s MFA controller is Siemens Building Technologies, Inc.
(http://www.siemens.com/buildingtechnologies)

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12/01/2005
Chemical
Processing

Soft Sensors Win Hard Jobs
Clearly, soft sensors are destined for a wider role in conventional closed-loop control. In addition, the inferential calculators are making a mark in emerging control approaches.

"Since MFA needs only the setpoint and the process variable as the input information to compute its control output, it does not require some of the special information that a model-based approach may require, " says Dr. George Cheng, the company's chief technology officer. "MFA may need just one soft sensor for the process variable", he explains "while model-based approaches may need extra soft sensors to get the special information."

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10/01/2004
Hydrocarbon
Processing

Model-Free Adaptive technology Improves Distillation Column Chain Control
MFA has enabled PetroChina to increase production safety and efficiency. Distillation columns are the most widely used operating units in the chemical industry. Energy consumed by distillation columns contributes to more than 50% of plant operating costs.

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9/01/2004
Control Engineering - Europe

Model-Free Adaptive Control in Water Treatment
Many environmental protection agencies require water utilities to conduct regular tests for turbidity. Turbidity particles harbour harmful contaminants such as viruses and bacteria. Controlling water turbidity is difficult because of the long dead time in the process. A new control technology, MFA, has been useful in solving this problem.

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6/21/2004
Control

MFA Control Improves Productivity
Akzo Nobel's Pasadena, Texas plant produces fluidized cracking catalyst (FCC). The FCC produced at the plant is shipped to major oil refineries worldwide for use in their catalytic cracking processes. Catalytic cracking is an integral part of modern refineries and is of great importance to refinery operations.

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6/02/2004
IEE Computing and Control Engineering

Model Free Adaptive Control - The Technology, Methodology, and Applications.
Since its introduction in 1997, Model-Free Adaptive (MFA) Control products have been widely deployed in major process industries and achieved significant benefits for the users.

MFA controllers have a small foot-print, use very little CPU time and can be readily embedded into various control equipment. They are available on platforms offered by multiple vendors including building controllers, single-loop controllers, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), hybrid controllers, process automation controllers (PAC), control software, distributed control systems (DCS), and even control valves.

MFA will replace PID controllers on a very large scale and may also be used for controlling those loops that are now in manual control. This revolutionary technology allows users to achieve a significant advantage to better compete in this global economy.

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10/01/2003
InTech

Chinese Steel Plant Clears Air with Software
Here is what it takes to automatically measure and control the mixed gas-heating value. Here is how model-free adaptive (MFA) control technology enables users to improve production efficiency and yield.

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9/08/2003
Oil & Gas Journal
Control System Optimizes EOR Steam Generator Output (Site subscription required)
PetroChina Co.Ltd. improved production safety, realized greater oil production, and saved energy costs after implementing model-free adaptive (MFA) control on its steam generators in Liaohe fields.
   
6/10/2001
Control
Article "Air Separation Advances with MFA Control" published in Control Magazine, May 2001 Issue
MFA control proved to be easy to install and commission on Air Liquide's air separation units. Air Liquide engineers did it in one day. Since installation, virtually no maintenance or re-tuning of the MFA controller has been required. Air Liquide has achieved record-setting product yield, improved quality control, and operational stability. Based on this success, Air Liquide America has standardized on MFA control for its advanced regulatory control applications.
   

2/16/2001
Control

CyboCon HS Exclusive Report published in Control Magazine
Complex, high-speed systems usually require immediate adaptive capability. There is not enough time and data for a model-based system to learn a new model. High-speed model-free adaptive control is well suited for applications where process models are not available.
   
2/14/2001
Control Engineering - Europe
CyboSoft makes cover of Control Engineering Europe Magazine
Exactly how MFA manages to provide effective feedback control in all these situations with no model of the process and limited operator intervention has until recently been a carefully guarded secret. However, now that Dr. Cheng has successfully patented his technology, a few more critical details have emerged.
   
12/15/1999
Hydrocarbon Processing

Article "Model-Free Coking Furnace Control" published in Hydrocarbon Processing Magazine
In Guang-zhou Petrochemical Complex, the MFA control system for 2 coking furnaces have been running since June 1998. Operators have been relieved of tedious and ineffective manual control duties. The now smoothly running system has resulted in higher efficiency and yield.

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11/15/1999
Food Engineering

Article on MFA Control of Tomato Hot Breaks published in Food Engineering Magazine
In Del Monte's Woodland, California, plant, CyboCon was installed in just a few hours to control 9 tomato hot break lines. Since installation, the operators have used CyboCon 100 percent of the time. Even with major tomato load changes, the product temperature now varies no more than plus 2 to minus 5 °F.

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9/15/1998
Control

Article "Model-Free Adaptive Control of an Evaporator" Published in Control Magazine
In Tri-Valley Growers' Madera, California plant, CyboCon was installed to control a 3-effect evaporator for its density and level with a 2-input-2-output MFA controller. The system stability margin has been significantly increased and variation in product density has decreased by more than 50%.

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