Fast Real-Time Model Predictive Control for a Ball-on-Plate Process

This work is concerned with an original ball-on-plate laboratory process. First, a simplified process model based on state–space process description is derived. Next, a fast state–space MPC algorithm is discussed. Its main advantage is computational simplicity: the manipulated variables are found on-line using explicit formulas with parameters calculated off-line; no real-time optimization is necessary. Software and hardware implementation details of the considered MPC algorithm using the STM32 microcontroller are presented. Tuning of the fast MPC algorithm is discussed. To show the efficacy of the MPC algorithm, it is compared with the classical PID and LQR controllers.