Model Predictive Control of a Pneumatic system with variable topologies

This paper addresses the challenge of control for systems with varying topologies. These changes in topology, which occur during system operation, have a significant impact on the overall system dynamics; hence the control should be adaptive with respect to these topology changes. The paper proposes an approach consisting of efficiently modeling the system and the development of a single model-based controller. For validation of the proposed approach, the paper focuses on a complex air net (pneumatic system). The simulation result and preliminary experimental results show a significant improvement in performance with a limited effort of modeling and controller development, due to the proposed approach, over classic approaches based on limited modeling.