Multi-loop Internal Model Controller Design Based on a Dynamic PLS Framework

In this paper, a multi-loop internal model control (IMC) scheme in conjunction with feed-forward strategy based on the dynamic partial least squares (DyPLS) framework is proposed. Unlike the traditional methods to decouple multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems, the DyPLS framework automatically decomposes the MIMO process into a multi-loop system in the PLS subspace in the modeling stage. The dynamic filters with identical structure are used to build the dynamic PLS model, which retains the orthogonality among the latent variables. To address the model mismatch problem, an off-line least squares method is applied to obtain a set of optimal filter parameters in each latent space. Without losing the merits of model-based control, a simple and easy-tuned IMC structure is readily carried over to the dynamic PLS control framework. In addition, by projecting the measurable disturbance into the latent subspace, a multi-loop feed-forward control is yielded to achieve better performance for disturbance rejection. Simulation results of a distillation column are used to further demonstrate this new strategy outperforms conventional control schemes in servo behavior and disturbance rejection.