Error, integrated with interacting controllers

Model predictive control (MPC) was developed in the 1970s and 1980s to meet control challenges of refineries. The advantages of MPC are most evident when it is used as a multivariable controller integrated with an optimizer. The greatest MPC benefits are realized in applications with dead-time dominance, interactions, constraints, and the need for optimization. As opposed to a traditional control loop, where the controller responds to a difference (error) between the set point and measurement, the predictive controller uses a vector difference between the future trajectory of the set point and the predicted trajectory of the controlled variable as its input (Figure 2.52). 

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