Copyright © 2012 Yolanda Bolea et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Canal systems are complex nonlinear, distributed parameter systems with changing parameters according to the operating point. In this paper, a linear parameter-varying (LPV) state-space canal control model is obtained by identification in a local way using a multimodel approach. This LPV identification procedure is based on subspace methods for different operating points of an irrigation canal covering the full operation range. Different subspace algorithms have been used and compared. The model that best represents the canal behavior in a precise manner has been chosen, and it has been validated by error functions and analysis correlation of residuals in a laboratory multireach pilot canal providing satisfactory results.