Automatic code generation for real-time implementation of Model Predictive Control

Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a proven control concept with many applications in the process industry. Popularity of the framework is mainly due to its ability to optimize behavior of the process while respecting physical and economical constraints. The major challenge of implementing MPC in real time on low-cost hardware is the inherent computational complexity. To address this goal, it is proposed to solve a given MPC problem using parametric programming, which encodes the optimal control moves as a lookup table. A great advantage being that such tables can then be processed even with low computational resources and therefore allow MPC to be deployed to low cost control devices. In the paper we present a unique software tool which allows MPC problems to be designed with low human effort, and is capable to automatically generate real-time executable code for various target platforms.