Model-based control for industrial processes using a virtual laboratory

In the metallurgical industries, thermophysical processes are used in large numbers for the processing of materials in successive stages. Those processes are complex and they operate in hostile conditions and with poor accessibility. Model-based control in such cases is useful for designing and testing control strategies. The concept of virtual laboratory consists in combining real and virtual processes with real and virtual controllers, these four elements communicate with one another locally or through the internet. Researchers in the laboratory and operators on the plant floor can work together at a distance and in real time to solve process control problems by applying various control strategies and testing the solutions. This paper reports the work undertaken for setting up the virtual control laboratory (VCL) and gives an example of model-based control design carried out as an application of the VCL concept. The example is drawn from the adaptive control design of an aluminium casting furnace