Optimization based controller tuning systems and methods

A method for controlling operation of an industrial process, comprising:

• determining, using a control system, soft constraints based at least in part on constraints on manipulated variables, controlled variables, or both of the industrial process;
• determining, using the control system, an augmented objective function based at least in part on a control objective function and the soft constraints;
• determining, using the control system, a closed form solution to the augmented objective function, wherein the closed form solution is a function of tuning parameters in the control objective function;
• determining, using the control system, a tuning objective function based at least in part on the closed form solution and the control objective function;
• determining, using the control system, a first set of the tuning parameters that minimize the tuning objective function;
• determining, using the control system, manipulated variable setpoints based at least in part on the control objective function, wherein the control objective function comprises the tuning parameters as weighting on aspects of the industrial process affected by manipulated variables of the industrial process, controlled variables of the process, or both;
• and
• controlling, using the control system, operation of the industrial process by instructing one or more automation components to implement the manipulated variable setpoints.

A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium configured to store instructions executable by a processor of a control system, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to:

• instruct, using the processor, state transition optimization circuitry to determine a desired operating trajectory of a process over a control horizon that transitions the process from a current operating state to a desired operating state after the control horizon;
• instruct, using the processor, control optimization circuitry to determine an actual operating trajectory of the process to implement in the process that minimize a control objective function subject to first constraints on the process, wherein the control objective function comprises a first tuning parameter that weights cost associated with value of the actual operating trajectory and a second tuning parameter that weights cost associated with changes in the actual operating trajectory at each of a plurality time steps in the control horizon;
• and
• instruct, using the processor, tuning optimization circuitry to determine at least the first tuning parameter and the second tuning parameter to minimize a tuning objective function, wherein the tuning objective function is determined based at least in part on a closed form solution to an augmented version of the control objective function with the first constraints included as soft constraints.