Update-aware robust optimal model predictive control for nonlinear systems
File(s)LCSS_2025___Update_Aware_Robust_MPC___Final.pdf (307.87 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Wehbeh, Jad
Kerrigan, Eric
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Robust optimal or min-max model predictive control (MPC) approaches aim to guarantee constraint satisfaction over a known, bounded uncertainty set while minimizing a worst-case performance bound. Traditionally, these methods compute a trajectory that meets the desired properties over a fixed prediction horizon, apply a portion of the resulting input, and then re-solve the MPC problem using newly obtained measurements at the next time step. However, this approach fails to account for the fact that the control trajectory will be updated in the future, potentially leading to conservative designs. In this paper, we present a novel update-aware robust optimal MPC algorithm for decreasing horizon problems on nonlinear systems that explicitly accounts for future control trajectory updates. This additional insight allows our method to provably expand the feasible solution set and guarantee improved worst-case performance bounds compared to existing techniques. Our approach formulates the trajectory generation problem as a sequence of nested existence-constrained semi-infinite programs (SIPs), which can be efficiently solved using local reduction techniques. To demonstrate its effectiveness, we evaluate our approach on a planar quadrotor problem, where it clearly outperforms an equivalent method that does not account for future updates at the cost of increased computation time.
Date Issued
2025-06-04
Date Acceptance
2025-05-25
Citation
IEEE Control Systems Letters, 2025
ISSN
2475-1456
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Control Systems Letters
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2025 IEEE. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2025-06-04