Stable LPV realisation of the Smith predictor

The paper is concerned with the control of a linear plant with an output delay. As is known, when the plant parameters do not vary in time, the transfer function approach can be used to find a high-performing controller with the Smith-predictor structure. Such an approach in the domain of the Laplace transform is not directly applicable in the time-variant case. Nevertheless, it is shown that the transfer function of the Smith controller valid for constant values of the parameters can be realised in such a way that closed-loop stability, as well as point-wise optimal performance, is ensured also when the parameters vary with time. The suggested technique is applied to the control of a heat exchanger whose varying parameters include a measurement delay.