KNOWLEDGE-BASED SUPERVISION AND CONTROL OF BIOPROCESS WITH A MACHINE VISION-BASED SENSING SYSTEM

A computer supervised bioprocess system with an on-line machine vision sensing system was designed and implemented. The system consisted of a central process controller, a bench scale bioreactor, a computer-controlled automatic sampling system and a machine vision sensing system. A digital control unit, part of the bioreactor, maintained the process variables. The vision sensing system and the associated automatic sampling system were integrated with the bioprocess system to provide on-line cellular information, correlated to the cell concentration, cell growth rate, and cellular events. The sampling system delivered the sample to the microscope stage for the vision system to acquire images. The central process controller (CPC) supervised all other subsystems via digital communications. The CPC directed the sampling system to take samples at defined time intervals or by special request. Images of samples were processed by the vision system afterwards and feature information was saved. Control decisions were made by the knowledge-based supervisory controller in terms of the processing variable setpoint adjustment. This bioprocess system could be used as a research technique. It could also be applied for quality and process control in industry.