Energy saving and indoor temperature control for an office building using tube-based robust model predictive control

Abstract

Actively controlling a building’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system can reduce costs and improve indoor comfort. Model predictive control (MPC) is an effective control algorithm that can facilitate the active control of complex systems such as the HVAC system. However, the uncertainty of the prediction model engenders many challenges in practical application. To address these issues, we propose a tube-based MPC strategy. First, a reduced-order thermal capacitance and thermal resistance model is established for the target system. Subsequently, a tube-based MPC scheme is designed to effectively handle uncertainties in real systems. The prediction uncertainty space is re-assumed in the tube, combined with the actual prediction error, to more closely correspond to the actual situation. The proposed model is tested and validated using the BOPTEST open-source testing framework. The results show that the proposed tube-based MPC can reduce the operating cost by at least 24%, compared with the traditional open-loop and closed-loop MPC, and can better control the indoor temperature when considering multiple uncertain predictions.