Benchmarking of Flatness-based Control of the Heat Equation

Abstract: Flatness-based control design is a well established method to generate open-loop control signals. Several articles discuss the application of flatness-based control design of (reaction-) diffusion problems for various scenarios. Beside the pure analytical derivation also the numerical computation of the input signal is crucial to yield a reliable trajectory planning. Therefore, we derive the input signal step-by-step and describe the influence of system and controller parameters on the computation of the input signal. In particular, we benchmark the control design of the one-dimensional heat equation with Neumann-type boundary actuation for pure aluminum and steel 38Si7, and discuss the applicability of the found input signals for realistic scenarios.