Robust set-point regulation for ecological models with multiple management goals

Chris Guiver, Markus Mueller, Dave Hodgson, Stuart Townley

OAI: oai:purehost.bath.ac.uk:publications/7bbfd882-79e1-4aed-8753-ef5fc0b1f844 • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-015-0919-7

Population managers will often have to deal with problems of meeting multiple goals, for example, keeping at specific levels both the total population and population abundances in given stage-classes of a stratified population. In control engineering, such set-point regulation problems are commonly tackled using multi-input, multi-output proportional and integral (PI) feedback controllers. Building on our recent results for population management with single goals, we develop a PI control approach in a context of multi-objective population management. We show that robust set-point regulation is achieved by using a modified PI controller with saturation and anti-windup elements, both described in the paper, and illustrate the theory with examples. Our results apply more generally to linear control systems with positive state variables, including a class of infinite-dimensional systems, and thus have broader appeal.

Anti-windup control PI control population ecology Positive state system Resource management