Patent ID: 7213006

Claim:
A system for managing a plant or process, comprising: a computer system, comprising: a processor; and a memory medium coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores program instructions executable by the processor to implement a model, wherein the model comprises a representation of a plant or process, and wherein the plant or process comprises linear and non-linear aspects; an input, coupled to the computer system, wherein the input is operable to receive an input vector comprising one or more inputs for the model, each input representing an attribute of the plant or process; and an output, coupled to the computer system; wherein the model comprises: a linear portion, representing the linear aspects of the plant or process; and a non-linear portion, representing the non-linear aspects of the plant or process, wherein the non-linear portion comprises a function, wherein for each of the one or more inputs, x i , the function is of the form: f = ln ⁢ 1 1 + e u i wherein u i = x i - x i a - 1 2 ⁢ ( x i b - x i a ) 1 4 ⁢ ( x i b - x i a ) ; ⁢ and wherein x a i and x b i are regression variables; wherein the processor is operable to execute the model to compute a predicted output corresponding to one or more attributes of the plant or process, based on the received input vector; and wherein the output is operable to provide the predicted output to manage the plant or process.