| CPC G05B 13/048 (2013.01) [G05B 13/027 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A predictive control system for automatic operation of a plant, the predictive control system comprising:
controllable equipment operable to affect one or more controlled variables of the plant by providing the controllable equipment with control signals based on one or more manipulated variables; and
a predictive controller comprising a processing circuit configured to:
use a predictive model to predict values of the one or more controlled variables predicted to result from operating the controllable equipment in accordance with corresponding values of the one or more manipulated variables;
use the values of the one or more controlled variables predicted by the predictive model to evaluate an objective function that defines a control objective as a function of at least the one or more controlled variables;
perform a predictive optimization process to generate optimal values of the one or more manipulated variables for a plurality of time steps in an optimization period using the predictive model and the objective function; and
operate the controllable equipment by providing the controllable equipment with control signals based on the optimal values of the one or more manipulated variables generated by performing the predictive optimization process.
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