Preface
Predictive control was developed in the middle of the 1970s. It originally referred to a kind of advanced computer control algorithm that appeared in complex industrial processes. Because of the ability of real‐time solving the optimal control under constraints, it has received great attention from the industrial community and been successfully applied to chemical, oil refining, power, and other industries. Since the 1980s, the algorithms and applications of predictive control have been rapidly expanded. The commercial software of predictive control has undergone several generations of version updating and function expansion. Not only has it been applied in thousands of industrial processes around the world and achieved remarkable economic benefits but also the application fields have expanded rapidly from industrial processes to manufacturing, aerospace, transportation, environment, energy, and so on. Compared with applications, the development of predictive control theory lagged behind. However, since the 1990s, it has rapidly become a hotspot in the control field through adopting novel ideas and powerful tools from a new perspective. Especially the systematic progress in the synthesis theory of stable and robust predictive controllers has deepened the understanding of the essential mechanism of predictive control and constructed a rich theoretical system on qualitative synthesis of predictive control. Nowadays, predictive control is not only favored by industrial ...