Feedback/feedforward dual adaptive control of a solar collector field

This paper deals with temperature control in an industrial-scale solar collector field. The synthesis of a new dual version of an adaptive multipredictive controller (MUSMAR) is presented based on a bicriterial optimization. The adaptive predictive controller designed demonstrates improved performance in dealing with start-up transients compared with standard adaptive predictive controllers based on the certainty equivalence approach. The present algorithm is also modified so as to exploit the information conveyed by the accessible disturbances. Experimental results in the solar energy plant are included showing the benefits of combining the dual effect and the inclusion of feedforward terms.