Remote Pressure Control - Considering Pneumatic Tubes in Controller Design

In pneumatic pressure control applications the influence of tubes that connect the valve with the control volume ist mainly neglected. This can lead to stability and robustness issues and limit either control performance or tube length. Modeling and considering tube behavior in controller design procedure allows longer tubes while maintaining the required performance and robustness properties without need for manual tuning. The author\'s previously published Simplified Fluid Transmission Line Model and the proposed model-based controller design enable the specification of a desired pressure trajectory in the control volume while the pressure sensor is mounted directly at the valve. Thus wiring effort is reduced as well as cost and the chance of cable break or sensor disturbance. In order to validate the simulated results the proposed control scheme is implemented on a real-time system and compared to a state-of-the-art pressure regulating valv