ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the key components in Predictive functional control (PFC) and illustrates the efficacy of the approach despite its apparent simplicity. PFC is the product of a company, ADERSA, which has a main aim of maximising the takeup of Model Predictive Control (MPC) within industry. One significant difference between PFC and conventional MPC is the parameteri sation of the predicted input trajectory. PFC has a limited systematic constraint handling facility as, unlike in generalised predictive control, there is no flexibility in the d.o.f. in the solution of the equality conditions. The PFC tuning parameters lend themselves to simple intuition and hence may be popular with practising engineers. The weakness of PFC is exposed most clearly with either nonminimum phase processes and some unstable processes. Prestabilisation allowed a guarantee of the stability of PFC for a large enough horizon. Moreover the use of Infinite horizon predictive control prestabilisation gave better reliability.
