Application of Adaptive Controllers for the Temperature Control of a Semi-Batch Reactor

This paper investigates experimentally the application of several adaptive control algorithms for the control of a semi-batch chemical reactor. These algorithms combine parameter estimation algorithms and conventional control design methods to update the coefficients of the control algorithm. To make practical use of these control strategies, simple computational procedures are presented. The control objective is to keep the reactor temperature within safe operating specifications by manipulating the electrical heating power. Experimental results demonstrate that this class of adaptive controllers works well in the presence of large time delay, hard constraints and disturbances.