Flatness-based control of a continuous furnace

Generally speaking transport processes are typically modeled as distributed parameter systems. Most existing approaches to the control of such systems demand a high computational effort or are based on an approximation of the model. In this contribution, by attaching the sensors to the moving goods, two new flatness-based tracking control strategies are developed, which are numerically efficient and thus applicable online. Using the method of characteristics the partial differential equation (PDE) is transformed into an ordinary differential equation for every measuring point on the transported good. As control strategies the two degrees of freedom structure and a nonlinear tracking controller are considered and designed for a continuous furnace.