Real-time implementation of a decentralized control for an open irrigation canal prototype

This paper presents a real-time implementation of a decentralized LQG controller to regulate the downstream levels at the end of the pools in a four-pool open irrigation canal prototype with an upstream control concept. The objective of the controller is to keep the downstream level at a constant target value in despite of flow disturbances. Controller synthesis uses a "black box" input-output identified linear model. A previous interaction analysis, via Relative Gain Array "RGA", carried on the process model was made to verify the feasibility to design a decentralized control. The real-time close-loop results show satisfactory performance and they are compared with those obtained with a centralized LQG controller.