Single-loop controller design via IMC principles

In this paper, a new internal model control (IMC)-based single-loop control ler design is proposed. The model reduction technique is employed to find t he best sin.-le-loop controller approximation to the IMC controller. Compar ed with the existing IMC-based methods, the proposed design is applicable t o a wider range of processes, and yields a control system closer to the IMC counterpart. It can be made automatic for on-line tuning. The users have t he option to choose between PID and high-order controllers to suit the appl ications better. It turns out that high-order controllers may be necessary to achieve high performance for essentially high-order processes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.