The contribution presents the results of a collaborative R&D effort of two private companies and two national research institutions, joined at the European level. It was aimed to develop an enhanced on-line predictor of the strip thickness in the rolling gap. The issue dealt with is the absence of a reliable delay-free measurement of the outgoing strip thickness or the gap size, making the thickness control a challenging task. Although several satisfactory solutions have been used for decades,

more »

... nd modern control theory has been exploited as well, the pervasive competition in the field of metal strip processing emphasizes the need of a novel, more precious measuring method. The solution developed within the completed project is based on a parallel run of several adaptive Bayesian predictors whose outputs are continuously mixed to provide the best available rolling gap size prediction. The system was already tested in open loop in a real industrial environment for two reversing cold rolling mills processing steel and copper alloys strips, respectively.