Control of the water level in a pool of an hydraulic canal system based on a fractional order robust Smith Predictor scheme

The paper addresses the robust control of the water level at the downstream end pool of a real hydraulic canal system. The system is modeled using a second order model with a time-delay. A PI controller embedded in a modified Smith Predictor structure is therefore proposed. A fractional order compensator system is proposed to correct the perturbations on the downstream water level. The parameters of the fractional order compensator are optimized minimizing the ISE index around the nominal discharge of the hydraulic canal system. Three models are considered that represent the behavior of the system around different discharges, where the proposed fractional order compensator clearly outperforms an integer control system.