Direct and Indirect Gradient Control for Static Optimisation

Static “self-optimising” control is an important concept, which provides a link between static optimisation and control. According to the concept, a dynamic control system could be configured in such a way that when a set of certain variables are maintained at their setpoints, the overall process operation is automatically optimal or near optimal at steady-state in the presence of disturbances. A novel approach using constrained gradient control to achieve “self-optimisation” has been proposed by Cao. However, for most process plants, the information required to get the gradient measure may not be available in real-time. In such cases, controlled variable selection has to be carried out based on measurable candidates. In this work, the idea of direct gradient control has been extended to controlled variable selection based on gradient sensitivity analysis (indirect gradient control). New criteria, which indicate the sensitivity of the gradient function to disturbances and implementation errors, have been derived for selection. The particular case study shows that the controlled variables selected by gradient sensitivity measures are able to achieve near optimal performance.

Decentralised dynamic high-gain scaling-based output-feedback control of large-scale non-linear interconnected systems with delays

A general class of non-linear large-scale interconnected systems is considered,wherein each subsystem is comprised of a nominal part in a general strict-feedback-like structure and a set of appended dynamics.Parametric and functional uncertainties and time delays are allowed throughout the overall system structure including the nominal strictfeedback-like parts and appended dynamics of each subsystem as well as the non-linear subsystem interconnections.The controller design is based on the dual dynamic highgain scaling technique and provides a robust adaptive delay-independent globally stabilising decentralised output-feedback controller.The disturbance attenuation properties of the proposed output-feedback decentralised controller to an exogenous disturbance input are also analysed and specific conditions under which properties such as Input-toOutput-practical-Stability and asymptotic stabilisation are attained are also discussed.

PID Controller Tuning for a Multivariable Glass Furnace Process by Genetic Algorithm

Standard genetic algorithms （SGAs） are investigated to optimise discrete-time proportional-integral-derivative （PID） con- troller parameters, by three tuning approaches, for a multivariable glass furnace process with loop interaction. Initially, standard genetic algorithms （SGAs） are used to identify control oriented models of the plant which are subsequently used for controller optimisa- tion. An individual tuning approach without loop interaction is considered first to categorise the genetic operators, cost functions and improve searching boundaries to attain the desired performance criteria. The second tuning approach considers controller parameters optimisation with loop interaction and individual cost functions. While, the third tuning approach utilises a modified cost function which includes the total effect of both controlled variables, glass temperature and excess oxygen. This modified cost function is shown to exhibit improved control robustness and disturbance rejection under loop interaction.

Residential electrical vehicle charging strategies:the good,the bad and the ugly

In recent years,a wide variety of centralised and decentralised algorithms have been proposed for residential charging of electric vehicles(EVs).In this paper,we present a mathematical framework which casts the EV charging scenarios addressed by these algorithms as optimisation problems having either temporal or instantaneous optimisation objectives with respect to the different actors in the power system.Using this framework and a realistic distribution network simulation testbed,we provide a comparative evaluation of a range of different residential EV charging strategies,highlighting in each case positive and negative characteristics.