15th Triennial World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control
  Barcelona, 21–26 July 2002 
INFERENTIAL-LEARNING CONTROL OF QUALITY PROPERTIES IN SEMI-BATCH REACTORS
Jesus Flores-Cerrillo and John F. MacGregor
Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S4L7

A strategy for controlling product quality properties, subject to batch-to-batch and within batch disturbances is presented. The methodology is based on readily available measurements, information extracted from existing databases and a few simple identification experiments. This approach extends the mid-course correction control strategies to overcome model error when the process is affected by constant, correlated and uncorrelated disturbances. Adaptive PLS (Partial Least Squares) methods are used to extract the information and to update the models used for prediction and control. The methodology is illustrated with a few emulsion polymerisation examples.
Keywords: Batch control, Learning control, Partial Least Squares, Statistical process control, Polymerisation, Particle Size Distribution.
Session slot T-We-M03: Applications of Adaptive Control/Area code 3b : Adaptive Control and Tuning