An event-based PI controller based on feedback and feedforward actions

In this paper a PI control algorithm based totally on events is presented. The algorithm faces the control problem by solving in a decoupled way the two independent tasks: the setpoint following and the disturbance rejection. In particular, when a set-point change is required two pure proportional control actions are sequentially applied to move the process inside a dead band where it is considered that the error is zero. Once the process is inside the dead band, an event-based integrator is enabled to cope with the disturbance rejection task and to maintain the process inside the dead band. An error-based solution to couple both tasks lets the event-based control algorithm to manage the appearance of disturbances during the set-point following task, that is, before reaching the dead-band area.