Design of a nonlinear model-based controller with adaptive PI gains for robust control of a nuclear reactor

Abstract A Model-Based Controller with Adaptive Proportional-Integral gains (MCAPI) is developed for a trajectory tracking control of a single-input, single-output nonlinear system. The robustness of tracking error dynamics is guaranteed by the feedback of estimated uncertainty and the performance specification given by the adaptation of PI gains using the second method of Lyapunov. The newly developed MCAPI method is applied to the power tracking control of a nuclear reactor and the simulation results show great improvement in tracking performance compared with the conventional model-based control methods.