Control-Relevant Input Signal Design For Integrating Processes: Application to a Microalgae Raceway Reactor

Plants with integrators possess control-relevant modeling requirements that are typically ignored in the literature. Desired closed-loop speeds of response for such systems can differ significantly from their open-loop dynamics, causing conventional system identification guidelines to fail or be inaccurate. One such issue relates to experimental design. This paper presents guidelines for the design of excitation signals for system identification of plants with integrators, with application to the modeling and control of a microalgae raceway reactor. The concept is to excite the system through optimized test signals with control-relevant shaping of their power spectra. This facilitates a shift in emphasis of the identification objective from estimating a model with good open-loop performance to having a model possessing desired closed-loop characteristics. Such a consideration is particularly important when generating informative databases for estimating predictive models for closed-loop control. An illustration for this experimental design procedure is accomplished in this paper through the estimation of ARX-based models and, subsequently, model predictive control of the pH dynamics of an experimental raceway photobioreactor facility hosting sustainable microalgae production.