Multi-loop design of multi-scale controllers for multivariable processes

Based on the recently proposed (SISO) multi-scale control scheme, a new approach is introduced to design multi-loop controllers for multivariable processes. The basic feature of the multi-scale control scheme is to decompose a given plant into a sum of basic modes. To achieve good nominal control performance and performance robustness, a set of sub-controllers are designed based on the plant modes in such a way that they are mutually enhanced with each other so as to optimize the overall control objective. It is shown that the designed multi-scale controller is equivalent to a conventional PID controller augmented with a filter. The multi-scale control scheme offers a systematic approach to designing multi-loop PID controllers augmented with filters. Numerical studies show that the proposed multi-loop multi-scale controllers provide improved nominal performance and performance robustness over some well-established multi-loop PID controller schemes. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.