Till now, traditional low-order control schemes have never been applicable
to unstable systems with deadtime. In this paper, we present the first appl
ication of a PID controller with time-scheduled gains to unstable systems w
ith deadtime, consisting of a single unstable pole. The control gains are d
esigned based on a generalised predictive control (GPC) approach. The only
user specifications required are simple and classical desired properties as
in the natural frequency and the damping ratio of the closed-loop system.
An approach is further developed to subsequent on-line self-tuning of contr
ol weights so that the overall control system remains applicable and effect
ive in the face of disturbances and slowly varying dynamics. A detailed ana
lysis of the closed-loop stability of the thus designed control system is f
urther provided in the paper. Based on stability conditions developed, the
prediction horizon for the GPC-based controller may be effectively computed
. Finally, simulation examples illustrate the performance of the control sy
stem. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.