In controller design, the difficulty encountered is how to quickly minimize the upper bound of the objective function so that the control actions can force a process to track a specified trajectory as close as possible.

There has no rigorous solution to the selection of optimal control horizon (Nu) and prediction horizon (Ny).

The model horizon is selected so that TAt > open loop settling time.

The ranges of weighting factors Wj and W2 can be very wide, the importance is their relative magnitudes. The following procedure to tune the weighting factors is proposed:

— Select a value for Wj and assign it to all local controllers. Determine W2; independently for each local controller in order to minimize the objective function for that subsystem

— Identify the largest W2 and assign it to all subsystems.

Examine the system’s closed-loop dynamic performance. Reduce the value of W2 gradually until the desirable dynamic performance is identified.