A multi-disciplinary laboratory for control education has been developed at
the University of Delaware to expose students to realistic process system
applications and advanced control methods. One of the experiments is level
control of a four-tank system. This paper describes two model-based methods
students can implement for control of this interacting four-tank system. S
ub-space identification is used to develop an empirical state space model o
f the experimental apparatus. This model is then used for model based contr
ol using internal model control (IMC). This represents an application of in
ner-outer factorization for non-minimum phase multivariable IMC design. Mod
eling is also performed using step tests and Aspen software for use with dy
namic matrix control (DMC). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser
ved.