Multi-Parameter Quadratic Programming Explicit Model Predictive Based Real Time Turboshaft Engine Control

The traditional model predictive control (tMPC) algorithms have a large amount of online calculation, which makes it difficult to apply them directly to turboshaft engine–rotor systems because of real time requirements. Therefore, based on the theory of the perturbed piecewise affine system (PWA) and multi-parameter quadratic programming explicit model predictive control (mpQP-eMPC) algorithm, we develop a controller design method for turboshaft engine–rotor systems, which can be used for engine steady-state, transient state and limit protection control. This method consists of two steps: controller offline design and online implementation. Firstly, the parameter space of the PWA system is divided into several partitions offline based on the disturbance and performance constraints. Each partition has its own control law, which is in the form of piecewise affine linear function between the controller and the parameters. The control laws for those partitions are also obtained in this offline step. After which, for the online control implementation step, the corresponding control law can be obtained by a real-time query of a corresponding partition, which the current engine state falls into. This greatly reduces the amount of online calculation and thus improves the real-time performance of the MPC controller. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulating the steady-state and transient process of a turboshaft engine–rotor system with a limit protection requirement. Compared with tMPC, an mpQP-eMPC based controller can not only guarantee good steady-state, dynamic control performance and limit protection, but can also significantly improve the real-time performance of the control system.