This article presents a distributed model predictive controller with time-varying partitioning based on the augmented Lagrangian alternating direction inexact Newton method (ALADIN). In particular, we address the problem of controlling the temperature of a heat transfer fluid (HTF) in a set of loops of solar parabolic collectors by adjusting its flow rate. The control problem involves a nonlinear prediction model, decoupled inequality constraints, and coupled affine constraints on the system inputs. The application of ALADIN to address such a problem is combined with a dynamic clustering-based partitioning approach that aims at reducing, with minimum performance losses, the number of variables to be coordinated. Numerical results on a 10-loop plant are presented.
@article{arxiv.2305.02821,
title = {ALADIN-based Distributed Model Predictive Control with dynamic partitioning: An application to Solar Parabolic Trough Plants},
author = {P. Chanfreut and J. M. Maestre and D. Krishnamoorthy and E. F. Camacho},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.02821},
year = {2023}
}