Teaching generalised predictive control: lab practices for control engineers

Computer control teaching has a great drawback: it is difficult to lead students from theory to practice. Lab practices with real processes are needed in all control engineering studies. The paper shows an structured example: control problem analysis; simulations of designed controller; implementation of these controllers; validation of the design comparing simulation and experimental results. Furthermore, working with simple processes, problems related to noise sensor, actuator non-linearities, etc., appear too. The tuning-knobs of GPC allow students to solve them.