Modeling and economic model predictive control of constrained cutterhead system with disturbance in tunnel boring machines

Tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are usually the first choice for tunneling construction with its advantages on high safety, time saving, and less operators. Cutterhead system is an important component for TBMs since it is used to excavate rocks and soil. It is difficult to guarantee both the boring efficiency and energy saving under the excavating rock disturbances and the constraints on the driving motors in TBMs by manual operation. To deal with this problem, it is necessary to develop advanced control algorithms for the cutterhead system. Thus, we investigate an economic model predictive control (EMPC) structure for cutterhead system in TBMs. A generalized nonlinear dynamic model of TBM cutterhead system is built based on the first principle method. An economic cost is constructed with the boring efficiency and energy cost to evaluate the tunnel construction quality. EMPC algorithms are designed to optimize the constructed economic cost for a cutterhead system to guarantee good economic performance. It is shown that EMPC can improve the economic performance of the cutterhead system.