Sliding mode predictive control of a solar air conditioning plant

In this work, sliding mode predictive control (SMPC) was applied to an air conditioning solar plant. The process has a variable time delay with non-minimum phase behavior, whose inverse response changes with the operating point. Disturbances are produced by changes in solar irradiation and solar collectors' inlet temperature. The algorithm combines the design technique of sliding mode control (SMC) with model-based predictive control (MPC). The SMPC showed a considerable robustness improvement with respect to MPC under experimental validation on a real plant and also showed an enhanced ability to handle set point changes and disturbance rejection. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.