Predictive Control, or Model-Based Predictive Control ('MPC' or 'MBPC') as it is
sometimes known, is the only advanced control technique- that is, more advanced than standard PID control - to have had a significant and widespread impact on industrial process control. The main reason for this is that it is
@ The only generic control technology which can deal routinely with equipment and
safety constraints.
Operation at or near such constraints is necessary for the most profitable or most efficient operation in many cases. The penetration of predictive control into industrial practice has also been helped by the facts that .. Its underlying idea is easy to understand, Its basic formulation extends to multivariable plants with almost no modification, sq It is more powerful than PID control, even for single loops without constraints,without being much more difficult to tune, even on 'difficult' loops such as those containing long time delays.