We consider the problem of steering, via output feedback, the state distribution of a discrete-time, linear stochastic system from an initial Gaussian distribution to a terminal Gaussian distribution with prescribed mean and maximum covariance, subject to probabilistic path constraints on the state. The filtered state is obtained via a Kalman filter, and the problem is formulated as a deterministic convex program in terms of the distribution of the filtered state. We observe that, in the presence of constraints on the state covariance, and in contrast to classical Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control, the optimal feedback control depends on both the process noise and the observation model. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is verified using a numerical example.
This work addresses the optimal covariance control problem for stochastic discrete-time linear time-varying systems subject to chance constraints. Covariance steering is a stochastic control problem to steer the system state Gaussian distribution to another Gaussian distribution while minimizing a cost function. To the best of our knowledge, covariance steering problems have never been discussed with probabilistic chance constraints although it is a natural extension. In this work, first we show that, unlike the case with no chance constraints, the covariance steering with chance constraints p…
We consider chance-constrained binary programs, where each row of the inequalities that involve uncertainty needs to be satisfied probabilistically. Only the information of the mean and covariance matrix is available, and we solve distributionally robust chance-constrained binary programs (DCBP). Using two different ambiguity sets, we equivalently reformulate the DCBPs as 0-1 second-order cone (SOC) programs. We further exploit the submodularity of 0-1 SOC constraints under special and general covariance matrices, and utilize the submodularity as well as lifting to derive extended polymatroid …
This work investigates the finite-horizon optimal covariance steering problem for discrete-time linear systems subject to both additive and multiplicative uncertainties as well as state and input chance constraints. In particular, a tractable convex approximation of the optimal covariance steering problem is developed by tightening the chance constraints and by introducing a suitable change of variables. The solution of the convex approximation is shown to be a valid (albeit potentially suboptimal) solution to the original chance-constrained covariance steering problem.
We address the optimal covariance steering (OCS) problem for stochastic discrete linear systems with additive Gaussian noise under state chance constraints and input hard constraints. Because the system state can be unbounded due to the unbounded noise, the state constraints are formulated as probabilistic (chance) constraints, i.e., the maximum probability of constraint violation is constrained. In contrast, because it is hard to interpret the appropriate control action when the control command violates the constraints, probabilistically formulating the control constraints are difficult, and …
This paper extends the optimal covariance steering problem for linear stochastic systems subject to chance constraints to account for optimal risk allocation. Previous works have assumed a uniform risk allocation to cast the optimal control problem as a semi-definite program (SDP), which can be solved efficiently using standard SDP solvers. We adopt an Iterative Risk Allocation (IRA) formalism, which uses a two-stage approach to solve the optimal risk allocation problem for covariance steering. The upper-stage of IRA optimizes the risk, which is proved to be a convex problem, while the lower-s…
Many stochastic optimization problems include chance constraints that enforce constraint satisfaction with a specific probability; however, solving an optimization problem with chance constraints assumes that the solver has access to the exact underlying probability distribution, which is often unreasonable. In data-driven applications, it is common instead to use historical data samples as a surrogate to the distribution; however, this comes at a significant computational cost from the added time spent either processing the data or, worse, adding additional variables and constraints to the op…
The problem of optimizing affine feedback laws that explicitly steer the mean and covariance of an uncertain system state in the presence of a Gaussian random field is considered. Spatially-dependent disturbances are successively approximated with respect to a nominal trajectory by a sequence of jointly Gaussian random vectors. Sequential updates to the nominal control inputs are computed via convex optimization that includes the effect of affine state feedback, the perturbing effects of spatial disturbances, and chance constraints on the closed-loop state and control. The developed method is …
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…
In this paper, we present a novel stochastic output-feedback MPC scheme for distributed systems with additive process and measurement noise. The chance constraints are treated with the concept of probabilistic reachable sets, which, under an unimodality assumption on the disturbance distributions are guaranteed to be satisfied in closed-loop. By conditioning the initial state of the optimization problem on feasibility, the fundamental property of recursive feasibility is ensured. Closed-loop chance constraint satisfaction, recursive feasibility and convergence to an asymptotic average cost bou…
In this paper, we present a new control policy parametrization for the finite-horizon covariance steering problem for discrete-time Gaussian linear systems (DTGLS) which can reduce the latter stochastic optimal control problem to a tractable optimization problem. The covariance steering problem seeks for a feedback control policy that will steer the state covariance of a DTGLS to a desired positive definite matrix in finite time. We consider two different formulations of the covariance steering problem, one with hard terminal LMI constraints (hard-constrained covariance steering) and another o…
System Level Synthesis for Fast Chance-Constrained Post-Fault Ascent Replanning under Persistent Propulsion Uncertainty
School of Astronautics, Beihang University（北京航空航天大学宇航学院）；State Key Laboratory of High-Efficiency Reusable Aerospace Transportation Technology（高效可重复使用航天运输技术国家重点实验室）；National University of Defense Technology（国防科技大学）；Changsha Aerospace Technology Innovation Institute（长沙航天技术创新研究院）
This paper investigates the stochastic program with the chance constraint on a quadratic form of random variables following multivariate Gaussian mixture distribution (GMD). Under some mild conditions, it is proved that the asymptotic distribution of this kind of quadratic randomness is a univariate GMD. This finding helps to translate the chance constrained program into a more tractable one, based on which an effective branch-and-bound algorithm that takes advantage of the special structure of the problem is introduced to search the global optimal solution. Furthermore, it is shown that the e…
This paper studies closed-loop chance constrained control problems with disturbance feedback (equivalently state feedback) where state and input vectors must remain in a prescribed polytopic safe region with a predefined confidence level. We propose to use a scenario approach where the uncertainty is replaced with a set of random samples (scenarios). Though a standard form of scenario approach is applicable in principle, it typically requires a large number of samples to ensure the required confidence levels. To resolve this drawback, we propose a method to reduce the computational complexity …
In this paper, we propose a novel approach to synthesize linear feedback controllers for navigating in polygonal environments using noisy measurements and a convex cell decomposition. Our method is based on formulating chance constraints for the convergence and collision avoidance condition. In particular, the stability and safety guarantees come from chance Control Barrier Function (CBF) constraints and chance Control Lyapunov Function (CLF) constraints, respectively. We use convex over-approximations to get upper bounds of the constraints, leading to a convex robust quadratic program for fin…
In this paper, we address the problem of closed-loop control of nonlinear dynamical systems subjected to probabilistic uncertainties. More precisely, we design time-varying polynomial feedback controllers to follow the given nominal trajectory and also, for safety purposes, remain in the tube around the nominal trajectory, despite all uncertainties. We formulate this problem as a chance optimization problem where we maximize the probability of achieving control objectives. To address control problems with long planning horizons, we formulate the single large chance optimization problem as a se…
The growing amount of fluctuating renewable infeeds and market liberalization increases uncertainty in power system operation. To capture the influence of fluctuations in operational planning, we model the forecast errors of the uncertain in-feeds as random variables and formulate a security constrained optimal power flow using chance constraints. The chance constraints limit the probability of violations of technical constraints, such as generation and transmission limits, but require a tractable reformulation. In this paper, we discuss different analytical reformulations of the chance constr…
This work addresses the problem of vehicle path planning in the presence of obstacles and uncertainties, which is a fundamental problem in robotics. While many path planning algorithms have been proposed for decades, many of them have dealt with only deterministic environments or only open-loop uncertainty, i.e., the uncertainty of the system state is not controlled and, typically, increases with time due to exogenous disturbances, which leads to the design of potentially conservative nominal paths. In order to deal with disturbances and reduce uncertainty, generally, a lower-level feedback co…
Chance constrained optimal power flow (CC-OPF) formulations have been proposed to minimize operational costs while controlling the risk arising from uncertainties like renewable generation and load consumption. To solve CC-OPF, we often need access to the (true) joint probability distribution of all uncertainties, which is rarely known in practice. A solution based on a biased estimate of the distribution can result in poor reliability. To overcome this challenge, recent work has explored distributionally robust chance constraints, in which the chance constraints are satisfied over a family of…
This paper presents a distributionally robust stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) approach for linear discrete-time systems subject to unbounded and correlated additive disturbances. We consider hard input constraints and state chance constraints, which are approximated as distributionally robust (DR) Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) constraints over a Wasserstein ambiguity set. The computational complexity is reduced by resorting to a tube-based MPC scheme with indirect feedback, such that the error scenarios can be sampled offline. Recursive feasibility is guaranteed by softening the …
This paper considers linear discrete-time systems with additive disturbances, and designs a Model Predictive Control (MPC) law incorporating a dynamic feedback gain to minimise a quadratic cost function subject to a single chance constraint. The feedback gain is selected online and we provide two selection methods based on minimising upper bounds on predicted costs. The chance constraint is defined as a discounted sum of violation probabilities on an infinite horizon. By penalising violation probabilities close to the initial time and assigning violation probabilities in the far future with va…
This paper proposes a novel active Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) method with continuous trajectory optimization over a stochastic robot dynamics model. The problem is formalized as a stochastic optimal control over the continuous robot kinematic model to minimize a cost function that involves the covariance matrix of the landmark states. We tackle the problem by separately obtaining an open-loop control sequence subject to deterministic dynamics by iterative Covariance Regulation (iCR) and a closed-loop feedback control under stochastic robot and covariance dynamics by Linear Qu…
The goal of this paper is to address finite-horizon minimum variance and covariance steering problems for discrete-time stochastic (Gaussian) linear systems. On the one hand, the minimum variance problem seeks for a control policy that will steer the state mean of an uncertain system to a prescribed quantity while minimizing the trace of its terminal state covariance (or variance). On the other hand, the covariance steering problem seeks for a control policy that will steer the covariance of the terminal state to a prescribed positive definite matrix. We propose a solution approach that relies…
We propose to solve a constrained distribution steering problem, i.e., steering a stochastic linear system from an initial distribution to some final, desired distribution subject to chance constraints. We do so by characterizing the cumulative distribution function in the chance constraints and by using the absolute distance between two probability density functions using the corresponding characteristic functions. We consider discrete-time, time-varying linear systems with affine feedback. We demonstrate the proposed approach on a 2D double-integrator perturbed by various disturbances and in…
We propose an open loop methodology based on sample statistics to solve chance constrained stochastic optimal control problems with probabilistic safety guarantees for linear systems where the additive Gaussian noise has unknown mean and covariance. We consider a joint chance constraint for time-varying polytopic target sets under assumptions that the disturbance has been sufficiently sampled. We derive two theorems that allow us to bound the probability of the state being more than some number of sample standard deviations away from the sample mean. We use these theorems to reformulate the ch…
This paper deals with the stochastic control of nonlinear systems in the presence of state and control constraints, for uncertain discrete-time dynamics in finite dimensional spaces. In the deterministic case, the viability kernel is known to play a basic role for the analysis of such problems and the design of viable control feedbacks. In the present paper, we show how a stochastic viability kernel and viable feedbacks relying on probability (or chance) constraints can be defined and computed by a dynamic programming equation. An example illustrates most of the assertions.
In this paper we propose a data-driven distributionally robust Model Predictive Control framework for constrained stochastic systems with unbounded additive disturbances. Recursive feasibility is ensured by optimizing over an linearly interpolated initial state constraint in combination with a simplified affine disturbance feedback policy. We consider a moment-based ambiguity set with data-driven radius for the second moment of the disturbance, where we derive a minimum number of samples in order to ensure user-given confidence bounds on the chance constraints and closed-loop performance. The …
In this paper, we present new results on the covariance steering problem with Wasserstein distance terminal cost. We show that the state history feedback control policy parametrization, which has been used before to solve this class of problems, requires an unnecessarily large number of variables and can be replaced by a randomized state feedback policy which leads to more tractable problem formulations without any performance loss. In particular, we show that under the latter policy, the problem can be equivalently formulated as a semi-definite program (SDP) which is in sharp contrast with ou…
In this paper, we present a new trajectory optimization algorithm for stochastic linear systems which combines Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) control with Constrained Covariance Steering (CSS) to achieve high performance with safety guarantees (robustness). Although MPPI can be used to solve complex nonlinear trajectory optimization problems, it may not always handle constraints effectively and its performance may degrade in the presence of unmodeled disturbances. By contrast, CCS can handle probabilistic state and / or input constraints (e.g., chance constraints) and also steer the sta…
Learning-based control algorithms require data collection with abundant supervision for training. Safe exploration algorithms ensure the safety of this data collection process even when only partial knowledge is available. We present a new approach for optimal motion planning with safe exploration that integrates chance-constrained stochastic optimal control with dynamics learning and feedback control. We derive an iterative convex optimization algorithm that solves an \underline{Info}rmation-cost \underline{S}tochastic \underline{N}onlinear \underline{O}ptimal \underline{C}ontrol problem (Inf…
In this work, we consider the problem of steering the first two moments of the uncertain state of an unknown discrete-time stochastic nonlinear system to a given terminal distribution in finite time. Toward that goal, first, a non-parametric predictive model is learned from a set of available training data points using stochastic variational Gaussian process regression: a powerful and scalable machine learning tool for learning distributions over arbitrary nonlinear functions. Second, we formulate a tractable nonlinear covariance steering algorithm that utilizes the Gaussian process predictive…
Continued great efforts have been dedicated towards high-quality trajectory generation based on optimization methods, however, most of them do not suitably and effectively consider the situation with moving obstacles; and more particularly, the future position of these moving obstacles in the presence of uncertainty within some possible prescribed prediction horizon. To cater to this rather major shortcoming, this work shows how a variational Bayesian Gaussian mixture model (vBGMM) framework can be employed to predict the future trajectory of moving obstacles; and then with this methodology, a…
Operator Splitting Covariance Steering for Safe Stochastic Nonlinear Control
School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology（航空航天工程学院，佐治亚理工学院）；School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology（电气与计算机工程学院，佐治亚理工学院）
We consider the problem of synthesizing robust disturbance feedback policies for systems performing complex tasks. We formulate the tasks as linear temporal logic specifications and encode them into an optimization framework via mixed-integer constraints. Both the system dynamics and the specifications are known but affected by uncertainty. The distribution of the uncertainty is unknown, however realizations can be obtained. We introduce a data-driven approach where the constraints are fulfilled for a set of realizations and provide probabilistic generalization guarantees as a function of the …
A code for communication over the k-receiver additive white Gaussian noise broadcast channel with feedback is presented and analyzed using tools from the theory of linear quadratic Gaussian optimal control. It is shown that the performance of this code depends on the noise correlation at the receivers and it is related to the solution of a discrete algebraic Riccati equation. For the case of independent noises, the sum rate achieved by the proposed code, satisfying average power constraint P, is characterized as 1/2 log (1+P*phi), where the coefficient "phi" in the interval [1,k] quantifies th…
University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）
In this work, we analyze the properties of the solution to the covariance steering problem for discrete time Gaussian linear systems with a squared Wasserstein distance terminal cost. In our previous work, we have shown that by utilizing the state feedback control policy parametrization, this stochastic optimal control problem can be associated with a difference of convex functions program. Here, we revisit the same covariance control problem but this time we focus on the analysis of the problem. Specifically, we establish the existence of solutions to the optimization problem and derive the f…
