Decoupling internal model control for multivariable systems with multiple time delays

The decoupling problem with stability for linear multivariable processes with multiple time delays is considered and the internal model control scheme is adopted. All the controllers which solve the problem and the resultant closed-loop systems are characterized in terms of their unavoidable time delays and non-minimum phase zeros. According to such characteristics, a control design for best achievable performance is presented and further simplified with the help of model reduction to obtain an easy-to-implement yet good approximation to the theoretical solution of generally high complexity. Numerical and practical examples are given to illustrate our analysis and design