Nonlinear and Switching Control for the HVAC System

In this paper, we integrate nonlinear control and supervisory control theory to design a controller of a heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system. First we design the nonlinear controllers by Lyapunov theory and backstepping. Then we create the discrete abstraction of this system and thus derive the discrete event system model from the continuous plant. Finally we design the supervisory controller of the discrete event model and thus complete the design of a hybrid control system. With the switching logic controlled by the supervisor and the good performance of the nonlinear controller, we can achieve many specifications with this systematic design.