Output consensus for interconnected heterogeneous systems via a combined model predictive control and integral sliding mode control with application to CSTRs

Interconnected structures are commonly found in process networks. In this paper, an output consensus framework is proposed for a class of continuous interconnected linear heterogeneous systems subject to disturbances and constraints. The distributed output consensus control strategy is developed by combining integral sliding mode control with model predictive control. The integral sliding mode control is designed to eliminate a class of matched disturbances. The model predictive control plays two main roles: On the one hand, it drives the system states to track the steady state values so as to achieve output consensus; on the other hand, it helps to deal with interconnections and constraints existing in systems. In the meantime, a distributed iterative algorithm is designed to acquire the system steady states. A simulation example and an experiment relating to control of systems of interconnected CSTRs are presented to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.