Adaptive model predictive control based on the steady state constrained ARX model

This work introduces an adaptive model predictive control (MPC) scheme for nonlinear processes. It is well-known that the conventional MPC uses linear model to represent local dynamics of a nonlinear process and resulting optimization problem is convex. However, the model mismatch between linear model and nonlinear process may significantly degrade the performance of MPC and thereby the closed-loop stability may not be guaranteed. To address this issue, the model used in MPC should be accurate enough for different operating conditions. The contribution of this paper is the development of a steady state constrained autoregressive with exogenous terms model (SSARX) that is still linear and adaptive to the variation of operating conditions. This new model then can be integrated with a linear MPC to achieve a trade-off between computational complexity and model accuracy. The proposed controller is applied in a continuous fermentation process and compared to an MPC with unconstrained ARX model (non-adaptive). The simulation shows that the MPC with ARX model leads to an offset during setpoint tracking while the MPC with SSARX model is offset free.