Approximate dynamic programming based controller for a production-inventory system

This article presents the design and development of a control system based on Approximate Dynamic Programming, applied to a particular case of a single echelon, single product production inventory-system. The structure presented in this work allows to find an approximate solution to the optimal control problem. The developed controller is feasible to be implemented in real-time mode. In addition it also allows to manage dynamic variations in the process to be controlled. Theoretical results are obtained and compared to a classical LQR controller. Simulation experiments showed the good performance and the feasibility of the proposed structure.