Adaptive control of full penetration gas tungsten arc welding

This application paper addresses the control of a nonminimum-phase plant with variable large orders and delays. The process concerned is full penetration gas tungsten arc welding. Based on an analysis of accepted adaptive algorithms, the generalized predictive control algorithm presented by Clarke et al. is selected as the principal control strategy. An adaptive generalized predictive decoupling control scheme is constructed. To decouple our nonminimum-phase multivariable plant, a predictive decoupling algorithm is also proposed. Simulations are performed to determine the default parameters of the algorithms. The performance has been tested by both simulations and experiments.