Adaptive control of transport systems with non-uniform sampling

This paper is concerned with the control of distributed parameter plants in which transport of mass or energy takes place over space with a variable flow rate. Based on Trotter´s formula for approximate semigroup decomposition a procedure is presented for building discrete time models with varying sampling period for this class of systems. In the warped (discrete) time scale the system structure is particularly simple, allowing control laws not to be misleaded by unnatural complications. An apllication is performed to adaptive control of temperature in a distributed collector solar field. Experimental results are presented in which large set-point changes are performed resulting in fast temperature transitions with very small overshoot.