Industrial Automatic Control Systems and Controllers Annotation << Back Modern Approaches to Automation and Control of Tubular Rotary Kilns Fedorova E.R., Morgunov V.V. Rotary kilns are widely used in the cement, metallurgical, and chemical industries. However, despite their prevalence, these systems are complex from an automation perspective due to factors such as the interconnection of parameters, high inertia, the complexity of ongoing physico-chemical processes, and high temperatures. This article analyzes the main trends in the development of control systems for rotary kilns. Two main directions are highlighted: soft sensors and predictive control systems. In the context of soft sensors, the article discusses methods for monitoring coating thickness, detecting and predicting its loss, determining the material layer height inside the kiln, as well as controlling the temperature in various zones of the kiln. Regarding predictive control, machine learning models are most commonly used. Various approaches to data set creation for training are employed, including models based on production data and simulation data obtained through numerical CFD modeling. Additionally, hybrid approaches are used within predictive systems, combining mathematical models derived from the physical laws of the process with machine learning-based models. The article concludes that there are no mathematical models with suffi cient accuracy and speed to describe the control object, which explains the wide use of machine learning methods in control systems and the active development of new mathematical models of processes that are not yet used in predictive control systems. Keywords: rotary kilns, automated process control system, soft sensor, Advanced Process Control and Optimization, predictive model, neural network, machine learning, expert system. DOI: 10.25791/asu.11.2024.1540 Pp. 09-18.