Building management system with self-optimizing control modeling framework

A self-optimizing controller for building equipment of a plant, the controller configured to:

• provide a manipulated variable as a control input to the plant and receive an output variable as a feedback from the plant;
• generate a performance variable model that defines the performance variable as a function of the manipulated variable;
• generate an output variable model that defines the output variable as a function of the manipulated variable;
• use the performance variable model to determine a gradient of the performance variable with respect to at least one of the output variable and the manipulated variable;
• use the output variable model to determine a gradient of the output variable with respect to the manipulated variable;
• generate a self-optimizing variable based on the gradient of the performance variable model and the gradient of the output variable model;
• and
• operate the building equipment of the plant to affect a variable state or condition of the building based on the value of the self-optimizing variable defined by the self-optimizing variable model.

A method for performing self-optimizing control on a plant, the method comprising:

• providing a manipulated variable as a control input to the plant and receiving an output variable as a feedback from the plant;
• generating a performance variable model that defines the performance variable as a function of the output variable and the manipulated variable;
• generating an output variable model that defines the output variable as a function of the manipulated variable;
• using the performance variable model to determine a gradient of the performance variable with respect to at least one of the output variable and the manipulated variable;
• using the output variable model to determine a gradient of the output variable with respect to the manipulated variable;
• generating a model of a self-optimizing variable based on the gradient of the performance variable model and the gradient of the output variable model;
• and
• operating the building equipment of the plant to affect the variable state or condition of the building based on a value of the self-optimizing variable defined by the self-optimizing variable model.