Modified two-degree-of-freedom Smith predictive control for processes with time-delay

This article proposes an improved two-degree-of-freedom Smith predictive control method for typical industrial control systems. Smith predictive control is a classic control strategy designed for systems with pure lag. As an extension of Smith predictive control, internal model control can solve the time-delay problem effectively and make the controller design simple. Based on the two control algorithms, an enhanced control method with modified control structure is developed in this paper. In the design scheme, the set-point tracking and the disturbance rejection characteristics are decoupled, such that the set-point tracking and disturbance rejection controllers can be designed independently to achieve better control performance. The obtained control strategy possesses simple and convenient parameter tuning procedures. The validity of the proposed scheme is verified through theoretical analysis and simulation comparison with other control methods, and the results indicate that the proposed strategy shows better performance on set-point tracking and disturbance rejection.