Assessing model prediction control (MPC) performance. 1. Probabilistic approach for constraint analysis

Advanced process control (APC)-in particular, model predictive control (MPC)-has emerged as the most effective control strategy in process industry, and numerous applications have been reported. Nevertheless, there are several factors that limit the achievable performance of MPC. One of the limiting factors considered in this paper is the presence of constraints. To exploit optimal control performance, continuous performance assessment, with respect to the constraints of MPC, is necessary. MPC performance assessment has received increasing interest, both in academia and in industry. This paper is concerned with a practical aspect of performance assessment of industrial MPC by investigating the relationship among process variability, constraints, and probabilistic economic performance of MPC. The proposed approach considers the uncertainties induced by process variability and evaluates the economic performance through probabilistic calculations. It also provides a guideline for the constraint tuning, to improve MPC performance.