Control Configuration Selection of Nonlinear Multivariable Plants

Introduction

In spite of the extensive research of the previous decades in the field of input-output pairing for linear multivariable plants, the input-output pairing problem of nonlinear multivariable plants has received little attention. There are two main approaches to input-output pairing selection of nonlinear multivariable plants. The first and the most widely used approach is to employ the well established linear techniques for the linearized plant model. The second approach, which is the subject of the present chapter, directly uses the nonlinear plant model and derives the appropriate input-output pair either from direct nonlinear input-output relationship or from the nonlinear extensions of the linear concepts by introducing the nonlinear RGA. The materials of this chapter are based on (Daoutidis and Kravaris 1992), (Glad 1999) and (Moaveni and Khaki-Sedigh 2007) and covers the class of affine nonlinear multivariable plants. Worked examples and simulation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the nonlinear pairing methodologies, and limitations of the classical RGA.