Safe-parking of nonlinear process systems: Handling uncertainty and unavailability of measurements

This work considers the problem of handling actuator faults in nonlinear process systems subject to input constraints, uncertainty and availability of limited measurements. A framework is developed to handle faults that preclude the possibility of continued operating at the nominal equilibrium point using the existing robust or reconfiguration-based fault-tolerant control approaches. The key consideration is to operate the plant using the depleted control action at an appropriate ‘safe-park’ point to prevent onset of hazardous situations as well as enable smooth resumption of nominal operation upon fault-repair. First, we consider the presence of constraints and uncertainty and develop a robust Lyapunov-based model predictive controller that enhances the set of initial conditions from which closed-loop stability is achieved. The stability region characterization provided by the robust predictive controller is subsequently utilized in a safe-parking algorithm that appropriately selects ‘safe-park’ points from the safe-park candidates (equilibrium points subject to failed actuators) to preserve closed-loop stability upon fault-repair. Specifically, a candidate parking point is termed a safe-park point if (1) the process state at the time of failure resides in the stability region of the safe-park candidate (subject to depleted control action and uncertainty) and (2) the safe-park candidate resides within the stability region of the nominal control configuration. Then we consider the problem of availability of limited measurements. An output feedback Lyapunov-based model predictive controller, utilizing an appropriately designed state observer (to estimate the unmeasured states), is formulated and its stability region explicitly characterized. An algorithm is then presented that accounts for the estimation errors in the implementation of the safe-parking framework. The proposed framework is illustrated using a chemical reactor example and demonstrated on a styrene polymerization process.