Enhanced modified Smith predictor for second-order non-minimum phase unstable processes

In this paper, a modified Smith predictor design is proposed for enhanced control of non-minimum phase unstable second-order time-delay processes with/without zero. The proposed method involves the design of two controllers, i.e. set-point tracking controller and disturbance rejection controller. Set-point tracking controller is designed as a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) in series with a lag filter using direct synthesis method. The disturbance rejection controller is designed as a PID in series with a lead/lag filter based on direct synthesis method. Set-point weighting is considered for minimising the overshoots. The proposed method is applied by simulation on several second-order unstable processes. Robustness studies have been carried out using the small-gain theorem. The method gives good nominal and robust control performances. Significant improvement in the disturbance rejection is obtained with the proposed method when compared to the recently reported methods in the literature.