Stability and performance in MPC using a finite-tail cost

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 and the extended horizon used for the terminal penalty. The main practical benefit of the considered finite-tail cost MPC formulation is the simpler offline design in combination with typically significantly less restrictive bounds on the prediction horizon to ensure stability. We demonstrate the benefits of the considered MPC formulation using the classical example of a four tank system

Convex Chance Constrained Model Predictive Control

We consider the Chance Constrained Model Predictive Control problem for polynomial systems subject to disturbances. In this problem, we aim at finding optimal control input for given disturbed dynamical system to minimize a given cost function subject to probabilistic constraints, over a finite horizon. The control laws provided have a predefined (low) risk of not reaching the desired target set. Building on the theory of measures and moments, a sequence of finite semidefinite programmings are provided, whose solution is shown to converge to the optimal solution of the original problem. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the computational performance of the proposed approach.Comment: This work has been submitted to the 55th IEEE Conference on Decision and Contro

Risk Sensitive Control of Markov Processes in Countable State Space

In this paper we consider infinite horizon risk-sensitive control of Markov processes with discrete time and denumerable state space. This problem is solved proving, under suitable conditions, that there exists a bounded solution to the dynamic programming equation. The dynamic programming equation is transformed into an Isaacs equation for a stochastic game, and the vanishing discount method is used to study its solution. In addition, we prove that the existence conditions are as well necessary

Stochastic MPC with Dynamic Feedback Gain Selection and Discounted Probabilistic Constraints

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 from a set of candidates generated by solutions of multiobjective optimisation problems solved by Dynamic Programming (DP). We provide two methods for gain selection 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 ignoring violation probabilities in the far future, this form of constraint allows for an MPC law with guarantees of recursive feasibility without an assumption of boundedness of the disturbance. A computationally convenient MPC optimisation problem is formulated using Chebyshev's inequality and we introduce an online constraint-tightening technique to ensure recursive feasibility. The closed loop system is guaranteed to satisfy the chance constraint and a quadratic stability condition. With dynamic feedback gain selection, the conservativeness of Chebyshev's inequality is mitigated and closed loop cost is reduced with a larger set of feasible initial conditions. A numerical example is given to show these properties.Comment: 14 page

Reducing the Prediction Horizon in NMPC: An Algorithm Based Approach

In order to guarantee stability, known results for MPC without additional terminal costs or endpoint constraints often require rather large prediction horizons. Still, stable behavior of closed loop solutions can often be observed even for shorter horizons. Here, we make use of the recent observation that stability can be guaranteed for smaller prediction horizons via Lyapunov arguments if more than only the first control is implemented. Since such a procedure may be harmful in terms of robustness, we derive conditions which allow to increase the rate at which state measurements are used for feedback while maintaining stability and desired performance specifications. Our main contribution consists in developing two algorithms based on the deduced conditions and a corresponding stability theorem which ensures asymptotic stability for the MPC closed loop for significantly shorter prediction horizons.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Energy-Efficient Transmission Scheduling with Strict Underflow Constraints

We consider a single source transmitting data to one or more receivers/users over a shared wireless channel. Due to random fading, the wireless channel conditions vary with time and from user to user. Each user has a buffer to store received packets before they are drained. At each time step, the source determines how much power to use for transmission to each user. The source's objective is to allocate power in a manner that minimizes an expected cost measure, while satisfying strict buffer underflow constraints and a total power constraint in each slot. The expected cost measure is composed of costs associated with power consumption from transmission and packet holding costs. The primary application motivating this problem is wireless media streaming. For this application, the buffer underflow constraints prevent the user buffers from emptying, so as to maintain playout quality. In the case of a single user with linear power-rate curves, we show that a modified base-stock policy is optimal under the finite horizon, infinite horizon discounted, and infinite horizon average expected cost criteria. For a single user with piecewise-linear convex power-rate curves, we show that a finite generalized base-stock policy is optimal under all three expected cost criteria. We also present the sequences of critical numbers that complete the characterization of the optimal control laws in each of these cases when some additional technical conditions are satisfied. We then analyze the structure of the optimal policy for the case of two users. We conclude with a discussion of methods to identify implementable near-optimal policies for the most general case of M users.Comment: 109 pages, 11 pdf figures, template.tex is main file. We have significantly revised the paper from version 1. Additions include the case of a single receiver with piecewise-linear convex power-rate curves, the case of two receivers, and the infinite horizon average expected cost proble