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Maintaining both indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort in buildings along with optimized energy consumption is a challenging problem. This investigation presents a novel design for hybrid ventilation system enabled by predictive control and soft-sensors to achieve both IAQ and thermal comfort by combining predictive control with demand controlled ventilation (DCV). First, we show that the problem of maintaining IAQ, thermal comfort and optimal energy is a multi-objective optimization problem with competing objectives, and a predictive control approach is required to smartly control the system. This leads to many implementation challenges which are addressed by designing a hybrid ventilation scheme supported by predictive control and soft-sensors. The main idea of the hybrid ventilation system is to achieve thermal comfort by varying the ON/OFF times of the air conditioners to maintain the temperature within user-defined bands using a predictive control and IAQ is maintained using Healthbox 3.0, a DCV device. Furthermore, this study also designs soft-sensors by combining the Internet of Things (IoT)-based sensors with deep-learning tools. The hardware realization of the control and IoT prototype is also discussed. The proposed novel hybrid ventilation system and the soft-sensors are demonstrated in a real research laboratory, i.e., Center for Research in Automatic Control Engineering (C-RACE) located at Kalasalingam University, India. Our results show the perceived benefits of hybrid ventilation, predictive control, and soft-sensors.

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Nonlinearities in system dynamics and the multivariable nature of processes offer a stiff challenge in designing predictive controllers that improve process performance in industries. This investigation presents a recurrent neuro fuzzy network (RNFN) model for a nonlinear multivariable system in process industries and a methodology to design model-predictive controllers (MPCs) using the proposed model. The RNFN model combines the learning features of artificial neural networks with human cognition capabilities of fuzzy systems. Therefore, RNFN leads to a modelling framework that has the ability not only to learn the model parameters, but also makes decision on operating region of the nonlinear model depending on the input-output data. Furthermore, the recurrent structure and the introduction of a memory unit between the fuzzy inference and fuzzification layer enhance the prediction capability due to the use of past input-output data, making the model more suitable for designing predictive controllers. Next, the MPC design methodology that exploits the advantages of the RNFN model to optimize the control moves is presented. The proposed MPC uses the gradient descent algorithm to minimize the control moves as against the traditional state-space approaches that require complex computations and solvers. Therefore, implementing the proposed MPC in embedded hardware becomes easier. The proposed modelling framework and the MPC design methodology are illustrated using experiments on a laboratory-scale quadruple tank. Our experiments show that the proposed RNFN-based MPC performs better than the neuro fuzzy network-based MPC for both servo and regulatory responses.