Model Optimal Control of the Four Tank System

Abstract

The four tank system is a widely used mechatronic laboratory system in control theory. This work is aimed to choose the best controller for the four tank system (4TS) with two input force. The optimal control is one of the best techniques in a sense of performance, and is demonstrated for the level control of 4TS. There are several controller systems in optimal control for this purpose which are Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), Linear Quadratic Gaussian Regulator (LQGR), H2, and H∞ controller system. These controllers will be applied to this important mechatronic system (4TS) separately, and compared the performance for disturbance rejection with each other to study the effect of these controller systems on the 4TS controlled state. On the other hand the performances of the optimal control systems are compared with other controller performances available in literatures for the same case study. The results indicate that the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) provides significant improvement over completely controllers. The simulations were carried out in MATLAB-Simulink.