Finite-dimensional constrained fuzzy control for a class of nonlinear distributed process systems

This correspondence studies the problem of finite-dimensional constrained fuzzy control for a class of systems described by nonlinear parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs). Initially, Galerkin's method is applied to the PDE system to derive a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) system that accurately describes the dynamics of the dominant (slow) modes of the PDE system. Subsequently, a systematic modeling procedure is given to construct exactly a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model for the finite-dimensional ODE system under state constraints. Then, based on the T-S fuzzy model, a sufficient condition for the existence of a stabilizing fuzzy controller is derived, which guarantees that the state constraints are satisfied and provides an upper bound on the quadratic performance function for the finite-dimensional slow system. The resulting fuzzy controllers can also guarantee the exponential stability of the closed-loop PDE system. Moreover, a local optimization algorithm based on the linear matrix inequalities is proposed to compute the feedback gain matrices of a suboptimal fuzzy controller in the sense of minimizing the quadratic performance bound. Finally, the proposed design method is applied to the control of the temperature profile of a catalytic rod.