Decentralized predictive control of multi-reach canals

This paper presents a digital control scheme for water level regulation in canals. The scheme considers a prototype canal composed by a series of pools connected with active gates. A control system is designed for each pool with the objective of manipulating the upstream gate in order to drive and maintain the downstream level at desired values. Each control system is composed by two controllers: one implements a discrete time predictive control law that gives the desired discharge through the gate as to ensure the downtream desired level; another one implements a local control law to move the gate to achieve the desired discharge. The paper presents the formulation of the global control scheme and shows results from simulations to illustrate and discuss the performance in different operation scenarios.