Robust control reconfiguration of a thermal process with multiple operating modes

This paper proposes a robust control reconfiguration method applied to a thermal process with multiple operating modes. For this process, several discrete-time models may be identified with respect to non-measurable exogenous events. The parameters of the identified models change according to operating conditions. In this case, it is convenient to design a reconfiguration strategy which switches online the right controller to achieve the same performances for a given objective. An additional detection-accommodation loop is proposed to the robust control feedback. The switching performances of the plant and the stability of the corresponding switched discrete-time linear systems are discussed. The reconfiguration strategy is validated on a real thermal process.