The stability of stochastic Model Predictive Control (MPC) subject to additive disturbances is often demonstrated in the literature by constructing Lyapunov-like inequalities that guarantee closed-loop performance bounds and boundedness of the state, but convergence to a terminal control law is typically not shown. In this work we use results on general state space Markov chains to find conditions that guarantee convergence of disturbed nonlinear systems to terminal modes of operation, so that they converge in probability to a priori known terminal linear feedback laws and achieve time-average performance equal to that of the terminal control law. We discuss implications for the convergence of control laws in stochastic MPC formulations, in particular we prove convergence for two formulations of stochastic MPC.
A typical bottleneck of model predictive control algorithms is the computational burden in order to compute the receding horizon feedback law which is predominantly determined by the length of the prediction horizon. Based on a relaxed Lyapunov inequality we present techniques which allow us to show stability and suboptimality estimates for a reduced prediction horizon. In particular, the known structural properties of suboptimality estimates based on a controllability condition are used to cut the gap between theoretic stability results and numerical observations.
We present a model predictive control (MPC) scheme to control linear time-invariant systems using only measured input-output data and no model knowledge. The scheme includes a terminal cost and a terminal set constraint on an extended state containing past input-output values. We provide an explicit design procedure for the corresponding terminal ingredients that only uses measured input-output data. Further, we prove that the MPC scheme based on these terminal ingredients exponentially stabilizes the desired setpoint in closed loop. Finally, we illustrate the advantages over existing data-dri…
This chapter compares different formulations for Economic nonlinear Model Predictive Control (EMPC) which are all based on an established dissipativity assumption on the underlying Optimal Control Problem (OCP). This includes schemes with and without stabilizing terminal constraints, respectively, or with stabilizing terminal costs. We recall that a recently proposed approach based on gradient correcting terminal penalties implies a terminal constraint on the adjoints of the OCP. We analyze the feasibility implications of these dual/adjoint terminal constraints and we compare our findings to a…
Adaptive Horizon Model Predictive Control (AHMPC) is a scheme for varying as needed the horizon length of Model Predictive Control (MPC). Its goal is to achieve stabilization with horizons as small as possible so that MPC can be used on faster or more complicated dynamic processes. Beside the standard requirements of MPC including a terminal cost that is a control Lyapunov function, AHMPC requires a terminal feedback that turns the control Lyapunov function into a standard Lyapunov function in some domain around the operating point. But this domain need not be known explicitly. MPC does not co…
We consider nonlinear model predictive control (MPC) with multiple competing cost functions. In each step of the scheme, a multiobjective optimal control problem with a nonlinear system and terminal conditions is solved. We propose an algorithm and give performance guarantees for the resulting MPC closed loop system. Thereby, we significantly simplify the assumptions made in the literature so far by assuming strict dissipativity and the existence of a compatible terminal cost for one of the competing objective functions only. We give conditions which ensure asymptotic stability of the closed l…
We consider an input-constrained differential-drive robot with actuator dynamics. For this system, we establish asymptotic stability of the origin on arbitrary compact, convex sets using Model Predictive Control (MPC) without stabilizing terminal conditions despite the presence of state constraints and actuator dynamics. We note that the problem without those two additional ingredients was essentially solved beforehand, despite the fact that the linearization is not stabilizable. We propose an approach successfully solving the task at hand by combining the theory of barriers to characterize th…
This paper presents a complementary approach to establish stability of finite receding horizon control with a terminal cost. First a new augmented stage cost is defined by rotating the terminal cost. Then a one-step optimisation problem is defined based on this augmented stage cost. It is shown that a slightly modified Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithm is stable if the value function of the augmented one-step cost (OSVF) is a control Lyapunov function. The proposed stability condition is completely complementary to the existing terminal cost based MPC stability conditions in the sense t…
Sequential and terminal constraint feasibility of the model predictive control (MPC) play important roles in ensuring MPC control continuity. This study thus investigates these two properties theoretically using an MPC model for vehicle platooning and eco-driving strategy at signalized intersections. This study is served as a supplement material for our paper coming soon.
In this paper, we provide a stability and performance analysis of model predictive control (MPC) schemes based on finite-tail costs. We study the MPC formulation originally proposed by Magni et al. (2001) wherein the standard terminal penalty is replaced by a finite-horizon cost of some stabilizing control law. In order to analyse the closed loop, we leverage the more recent technical machinery developed for MPC without terminal ingredients. For a specified set of initial conditions, we obtain sufficient conditions for stability and a performance bound in dependence of the prediction horizon a…
We show that Funnel MPC, a novel Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme, allows tracking of smooth reference signals with prescribed performance for nonlinear multi-input multi-output systems of relative degree one with stable internal dynamics. The optimal control problem solved in each iteration of Funnel MPC resembles the basic idea of penalty methods used in optimization. To this end, we present a new stage cost design to mimic the high-gain idea of (adaptive) funnel control. We rigorously show initial and recursive feasibility of Funnel MPC without imposing terminal conditions or other req…
For discrete time nonlinear systems satisfying an exponential or finite time controllability assumption, we present an analytical formula for a suboptimality estimate for model predictive control schemes without stabilizing terminal constraints. Based on our formula, we perform a detailed analysis of the impact of the optimization horizon and the possibly time varying control horizon on stability and performance of the closed loop.
We study tracking control for nonlinear systems with known relative degree and stable internal dynamics by the recently introduced technique of Funnel MPC. The objective is to achieve the evolution of the tracking error within a prescribed performance funnel. We propose a novel stage cost for Funnel MPC, extending earlier designs to the case of arbitrary relative degree, and show that the control objective as well as initial and recursive feasibility are always achieved - without requiring any terminal conditions or a sufficiently long prediction horizon. We only impose an additional feasibili…
Model predictive control (MPC) schemes are commonly designed with fixed, i.e., time-invariant, horizon length and cost functions. If no stabilizing terminal ingredients are used, stability can be guaranteed via a sufficiently long horizon. A suboptimality index can be derived that gives bounds on the performance of the MPC law over an infinite-horizon (IH). While for time-invariant schemes such index can be computed offline, less attention has been paid to time-varying strategies with adapting cost function which can be found, e.g., in learning-based optimal control. This work addresses the pe…
For nonlinear discrete time systems satisfying a controllability condition, we present a stability condition for model predictive control without stabilizing terminal constraints or costs. The condition is given in terms of an analytical formula which can be employed in order to determine a prediction horizon length for which asymptotic stability or a performance guarantee is ensured. Based on this formula a sensitivity analysis with respect to the prediction and the possibly time varying control horizon is carried out.
Many popular approaches in the field of robust model predictive control (MPC) are based on nominal predictions. This paper presents a novel formulation of this class of controller with proven input-to-state stability and robust constraint satisfaction. Its advantages are: (i) the design of its main ingredients are tractable for medium to large-sized systems, (ii) the terminal set does not need to be robust with respect to all the possible system uncertainties, but only for a reduced set that can be made arbitrarily small, thus facilitating its design and implementation, (iii) under certain con…
This paper is about a class of distributionally robust model predictive controllers (MPC) for nonlinear stochastic processes that evaluate risk and control performance measures by propagating ambiguity sets in the space of state probability measures. A framework for formulating such ambiguity tube MPC controllers is presented, which is based on modern measure-theoretic methods from the field of optimal transport theory. Moreover, a supermartingale based analysis technique is proposed, leading to stochastic stability results for a large class of distributionally robust controllers for linear an…
In this paper, model predictive control (MPC) strategies are proposed for dead-beat control of linear systems with and without state and control constraints. In unconstrained MPC, deadbeat performance can be guaranteed by setting the control horizon to the system dimension, and adding an terminal equality constraint. It is proved that the unconstrained deadbeat MPC is equivalent to linear deadbeat control. The proposed constrained deadbeat MPC is designed by setting the control horizon equal to the system dimension and penalizing only the terminal cost. The recursive feasibility and deadbeat p…
The main challenge in controlling hybrid systems arises from having to consider an exponential number of sequences of future modes to make good long-term decisions. Model predictive control (MPC) computes a control action through a finite-horizon optimisation problem. A key ingredient in this problem is a terminal cost, to account for the system's evolution beyond the chosen horizon. A good terminal cost can reduce the horizon length required for good control action and is often tuned empirically by observing performance. We build on the idea of using $N$-step $Q$-functions $(\mathcal{Q}^{(N)}…
In this paper, we present a quasi infinite horizon nonlinear model predictive control (MPC) scheme for tracking of generic reference trajectories. This scheme is applicable to nonlinear systems, which are locally incrementally stabilizable. For such systems, we provide a reference generic offline procedure to compute an incrementally stabilizing feedback with a continuously parameterized quadratic quasi infinite horizon terminal cost. As a result we get a nonlinear reference tracking MPC scheme with a valid terminal cost for general reachable reference trajectories without increasing the onlin…
High-voltage direct current (HVDC) is a commonly used technology for long-distance electric power transmission, mainly due to its low resistive losses. When connecting multiple HVDC lines into a multi-terminal HVDC (MTDC) system, several challenges arise. To ensure safe and efficient operation of MTDC systems, the voltage of all terminals need to be steered to within an operational range. In this paper we study the commonly used decentralized voltage droop controller, and show that it in general does not steer the voltages to within the operational range. We propose a decentralized PI controll…
Maximal Controlled Invariant-MPC: Enhancing Feasibility and Reducing Conservatism through Terminal CBF Constraint in Safety-Critical Control
Graduate Student, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering（丹尼尔·古吉恩航空航天工程学院研究生）；Assistant Professor, Director, Aerospace Robotics Lab, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering（丹尼尔·古吉恩航空航天工程学院助理教授、主任、航空航天机器人实验室）
University of Michigan（密歇根大学）；Yasar University（亚沙尔大学）
This paper considers the integrated problem of quay crane assignment, quay crane scheduling, yard location assignment, and vehicle dispatching operations at a container terminal. The main objective is to minimize vessel turnover times and maximize the terminal throughput, which are key economic drivers in terminal operations. Due to their computational complexities, these problems are not optimized jointly in existing work. This paper revisits this limitation and proposes Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) and Constraint Programming (CP) models for the integrated problem, under some realistic ass…
This paper proposes a novel hierarchical model predictive control (MPC) strategy that guarantees overall system stability. This method differs significantly from previous approaches to guaranteeing overall stability, which have relied upon a multi-rate framework where the inner loop (low level) is updated at a faster rate than the outer loop (high level), and the inner loop must reach a steady-state within each outer loop time step. In contrast, the method proposed in this paper is aimed at stabilizing the origin of an error system characterized by the difference between the inner loop state a…
This paper presents a Distributed Stochastic Model Predictive Control algorithm for networks of linear systems with multiplicative uncertainties and local chance constraints on the states and control inputs. The chance constraints are approximated via Cantelli's inequality by means of expected value and covariance. The cooperative control algorithm is based on the distributed Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers, which renders the controller fully distributedly implementable, recursively feasible and ensures point-wise convergence of the states. The aforementioned properties are guarant…
Risk-averse model predictive control (MPC) offers a control framework that allows one to account for ambiguity in the knowledge of the underlying probability distribution and unifies stochastic and worst-case MPC. In this paper we study risk-averse MPC problems for constrained nonlinear Markovian switching systems using generic cost functions, and derive Lyapunov-type risk-averse stability conditions by leveraging the properties of risk-averse dynamic programming operators. We propose a controller design procedure to design risk-averse stabilizing terminal conditions for constrained nonlinear …
We propose a model predictive control (MPC) approach for minimising the social distancing and quarantine measures during a pandemic while maintaining a hard infection cap. To this end, we study the admissible and the maximal robust positively invariant set (MRPI) of the standard SEIR compartmental model with control inputs. Exploiting the fact that in the MRPI all restrictions can be lifted without violating the infection cap, we choose a suitable subset of the MRPI to define terminal constraints in our MPC routine and show that the number of infected people decays exponentially within this se…
A standard way of finding a feedback law that stabilizes a control system to an operating point is to recast the problem as an infinite horizon optimal control problem. If the optimal cost and the optmal feedback can be found on a large domain around the operating point then a Lyapunov argument can be used to verify the asymptotic stability of the closed loop dynamics. The problem with this approach is that is usually very difficult to find the optimal cost and the optmal feedback on a large domain for nonlinear problems with or without constraints. Hence the increasing interest in Model Predi…
This paper presents new methods for ensuring that the energy system of a neighborhood that is designed with the objective of being zero emission is actually operated in a way that allows it to reach net zero emissions in its lifetime. This paper highlights the necessity of taking into account realistic operation strategies when designing the energy system of such neighborhoods. It also suggests methods that can be used in the operation of ZENs to ensure carbon neutrality. An optimization model for designing the energy system of a Zero Emission Neighborhood (ZEN) is first presented and used to …
In this paper, a novel tube-based economic Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme for uncertain systems that uses neither terminal costs nor terminal constraints is investigated. We show that the results from the undisturbed case can be extended to systems with bounded disturbances by using similar turnpike arguments and a properly modified stage cost. We prove robust guarantees on the closed-loop performance, convergence, and stability under suitable dissipativity and controllability conditions and discuss them in a numerical example.
In this paper we propose a parallel coordinate descent algorithm for solving smooth convex optimization problems with separable constraints that may arise e.g. in distributed model predictive control (MPC) for linear network systems. Our algorithm is based on block coordinate descent updates in parallel and has a very simple iteration. We prove (sub)linear rate of convergence for the new algorithm under standard assumptions for smooth convex optimization. Further, our algorithm uses local information and thus is suitable for distributed implementations. Moreover, it has low iteration complexit…
We are concerned with the design of Model Predictive Control (MPC) schemes such that asymptotic stability of the resulting closed loop is guaranteed even if the linearization at the desired set point fails to be stabilizable. Therefore, we propose to construct the stage cost based on the homogeneous approximation and rigorously show that applying MPC yields an asymp-totically stable closed-loop behavior if the homogeneous approximation is asymptotically null controllable. To this end, we verify cost controllability-a condition relating the current state, the stage cost, and the growth of the v…
Improving greenhouse fruit-production control by integrating reinforcement learning into short-horizon model predictive control
Wageningen University & Research（瓦赫宁根大学与研究）；Delft Center for Systems and Control (DCSC), Delft University of Technology（代尔夫特理工大学系统与控制中心）；Wageningen Research（瓦赫宁根研究）
We propose a multiscale model predictive control (MPC) framework for stationary battery systems that exploits high-fidelity models to trade-off short-term economic incentives provided by energy and frequency regulation (FR) markets and long-term degradation effects. We find that the MPC framework can drastically reduce long-term degradation while properly responding to FR and energy market signals (compared to MPC formulations that use low-fidelity models). Our results also provide evidence that sophisticated battery models can be embedded within closedloop MPC simulations by using modern nonl…
