Optimal Iterative Learning Control for Batch Processes in the Presence of Time-Varying Dynamics

Optimal iterative learning control (OILC) has been recognized as an excellent model-based means for regulating batch process with abundant successful applications reported in the past decades but also received considerable criticisms for its poor robustness against model mismatch that is common for many industrial situations. Despite numerous attempts to address the issue, many of them are still not able to yield satisfactory control performance particularly in the presence of a possible combination of time-varying uncertainties and conservatively designed controllers, which may compromise the learning mechanism, hence rendering the robustness issue of OILC far from well explored. This article intends to investigate the aforementioned issue by proposing a new OILC method resting upon the minimization of a dynamic upper bound on tracking error which is distilled from better exploitation of the time variation of uncertainties. We also show that the problem can be formulated in the framework of convex–concave game that can be efficiently solved by a subgradient method with an excellent balance of optimality and computation time. Such a formulation enables us to gain: 1) guaranteed monotonic convergence on tracking error; 2) remarkably reduced conservatism on controller synthesis; and 3) controllable computation complexity. It is further shown that the proposed method is capable of handling nonlinearity, for example Volterra system, a classic representation of nonlinear process. The efficacy of the method is verified by numerical experiments on a continuous stirred tank reactor model.