Temperature Control Method for Electric Heating Furnaces Based on Auto-Encoder and Fuzzy PI Control

Electric heating furnaces are widely used in industrial production and scientific research, where the quality of temperature control directly affects product performance and operational safety. However, precise control remains challenging due to the system's nonlinear behaviour, time-varying characteristics, and significant time delays. To overcome these issues, this paper proposes a composite control method that integrates an auto-encoder-based prediction model with fuzzy PI control. Specifically, a discrete-time temperature model is constructed, in which the auto-encoder learns the system dynamics and predicts future temperatures, while the fuzzy controller adaptively tunes the PI parameters in real time. This approach improves both modelling accuracy and the adaptability of the control system. The simulation results on the MATLAB/Simulink platform show that the proposed method maintains the temperature overshoot within 2% under various disturbances, including a maximum delay of 243 s, ±2 °C measurement noise, 10% voltage fluctuation, and abrupt 10% gain variation. These results demonstrate the method's strong robustness and indicate its suitability for advanced control design in complex industrial environments.