Advanced control politics and optimal performance for an irrigation canal

The paper firstly presents the model of an irrigation canal, obtained by linearizing Saint-Venant equations around a steady state. Classical control politics for an irrigation canal are then interpreted using automatic control tools. The time-delay from upstream discharge to downstream water level induces a limitation in the real-time performance of the controlled system for the so-called distant downstream control, that is not present in the local upstream control. A mixed controller combining distant downstream and local upstream control is proposed. The problem is casted into the H∞ optimization framework, and experimentally tested on an experimental canal located in Portugal.