KALMAN FILTERING IN THE CONTROL OF IRRIGATION CANALS

The Saint-Venant equations of open-channel flow were linearized about an average operating condition of the canal. The concepts of linear op timal theory were applied to derive a feedback control algorithm for c onstant-level control of an irrigation canal. The performance of the s tate estimators designed using the pole-placement technique and the Ka lman filtering technique (both time-varying and steady-state) were com pared with the results obtained using a full stale feedback controller . An example problem with a single pool was considered for evaluating the relative merits of the technique used to design an estimator for i rrigation canals. Considering the computational complexity and the acc uracy of the results obtained, the steady state Kalman filtering techn ique was found to be adequate for irrigation canals. The performance o f the system under a sampling frequency that is less than the frequenc y of simulation was also evaluated.