Modelling and optimal control of a time-delayed switched system in fed-batch process

The main control goal of the fed-batch process is to maximize the yield of target product as well as to minimize the operation costs simultaneously. Considering the existence of time delay and the switching nature in the fed-batch process, a time-delayed switched system is proposed to formulate the 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PD) production process. Some important properties of the system are also discussed. Taking the switching instants and the terminal time as the control variables, a free terminal time delayed optimal control problem is then presented. Using a time-scaling transformation and parameterizing the switching instants into new parameters, an equivalently optimal control problem is investigated. A numerical solution method is developed to seek the optimal control strategy by the smoothing approximation method and the gradient of the cost functional together with that of the constraints. Numerical results show that the mass of target product per unit time at the terminal time is increased considerably.