1,165 research outputs found
A Parallel Riccati Factorization Algorithm with Applications to Model Predictive Control
Model Predictive Control (MPC) is increasing in popularity in industry as
more efficient algorithms for solving the related optimization problem are
developed. The main computational bottle-neck in on-line MPC is often the
computation of the search step direction, i.e. the Newton step, which is often
done using generic sparsity exploiting algorithms or Riccati recursions.
However, as parallel hardware is becoming increasingly popular the demand for
efficient parallel algorithms for solving the Newton step is increasing. In
this paper a tailored, non-iterative parallel algorithm for computing the
Riccati factorization is presented. The algorithm exploits the special
structure in the MPC problem, and when sufficiently many processing units are
available, the complexity of the algorithm scales logarithmically in the
prediction horizon. Computing the Newton step is the main computational
bottle-neck in many MPC algorithms and the algorithm can significantly reduce
the computation cost for popular state-of-the-art MPC algorithms
Controlling the level of sparsity in MPC
In optimization routines used for on-line Model Predictive Control (MPC),
linear systems of equations are usually solved in each iteration. This is true
both for Active Set (AS) methods as well as for Interior Point (IP) methods,
and for linear MPC as well as for nonlinear MPC and hybrid MPC. The main
computational effort is spent while solving these linear systems of equations,
and hence, it is of greatest interest to solve them efficiently. Classically,
the optimization problem has been formulated in either of two different ways.
One of them leading to a sparse linear system of equations involving relatively
many variables to solve in each iteration and the other one leading to a dense
linear system of equations involving relatively few variables. In this work, it
is shown that it is possible not only to consider these two distinct choices of
formulations. Instead it is shown that it is possible to create an entire
family of formulations with different levels of sparsity and number of
variables, and that this extra degree of freedom can be exploited to get even
better performance with the software and hardware at hand. This result also
provides a better answer to an often discussed question in MPC; should the
sparse or dense formulation be used. In this work, it is shown that the answer
to this question is that often none of these classical choices is the best
choice, and that a better choice with a different level of sparsity actually
can be found
Custom optimization algorithms for efficient hardware implementation
The focus is on real-time optimal decision making with application in advanced control
systems. These computationally intensive schemes, which involve the repeated solution of
(convex) optimization problems within a sampling interval, require more efficient computational
methods than currently available for extending their application to highly dynamical
systems and setups with resource-constrained embedded computing platforms.
A range of techniques are proposed to exploit synergies between digital hardware, numerical
analysis and algorithm design. These techniques build on top of parameterisable
hardware code generation tools that generate VHDL code describing custom computing
architectures for interior-point methods and a range of first-order constrained optimization
methods. Since memory limitations are often important in embedded implementations we
develop a custom storage scheme for KKT matrices arising in interior-point methods for
control, which reduces memory requirements significantly and prevents I/O bandwidth
limitations from affecting the performance in our implementations. To take advantage of
the trend towards parallel computing architectures and to exploit the special characteristics
of our custom architectures we propose several high-level parallel optimal control
schemes that can reduce computation time. A novel optimization formulation was devised
for reducing the computational effort in solving certain problems independent of the computing
platform used. In order to be able to solve optimization problems in fixed-point
arithmetic, which is significantly more resource-efficient than floating-point, tailored linear
algebra algorithms were developed for solving the linear systems that form the computational
bottleneck in many optimization methods. These methods come with guarantees
for reliable operation. We also provide finite-precision error analysis for fixed-point implementations
of first-order methods that can be used to minimize the use of resources while
meeting accuracy specifications. The suggested techniques are demonstrated on several
practical examples, including a hardware-in-the-loop setup for optimization-based control
of a large airliner.Open Acces
Predictive control using an FPGA with application to aircraft control
Alternative and more efficient computational methods can extend the applicability of MPC to systems with tight real-time requirements. This paper presents a “system-on-a-chip” MPC system, implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA), consisting of a sparse structure-exploiting primal dual interior point (PDIP) QP solver for MPC reference tracking and a fast gradient QP solver for steady-state target calculation. A parallel reduced precision iterative solver is used to accelerate the solution of the set of linear equations forming the computational bottleneck of the PDIP algorithm. A numerical study of the effect of reducing the number of iterations highlights the effectiveness of the approach. The system is demonstrated with an FPGA-inthe-loop testbench controlling a nonlinear simulation of a large airliner. This study considers many more manipulated inputs than any previous FPGA-based MPC implementation to date, yet the implementation comfortably fits into a mid-range FPGA, and the controller compares well in terms of solution quality and latency to state-of-the-art QP solvers running on a standard PC
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Predictive control of a Boeing 747 aircraft using an FPGA
New embedded predictive control applications call for more efficient ways of solving quadratic programs (QPs) in order to meet demanding real-time, power and cost requirements. A single precision QP-on-a-chip controller is proposed, implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) with an iterative linear solver at its core. A novel offline scaling procedure is introduced to aid the convergence of the reduced precision solver. The feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experimental setup where an ML605 FPGA board controls a nonlinear model of a Boeing 747 aircraft running on a desktop PC through an Ethernet link. Simulations show that the quality of the closed-loop control and accuracy of individual solutions is competitive with a conventional double precision controller solving linear systems using a Riccati recursion.This work was supported by the EPSRC (Grants EP/G031576/1, EP/G030308/1 and EP/I012036/1) and the EU FP7 Project EMBOCON, as well as industrial support from Xilinx, the Mathworks, and the European Space Agency.IFAC Conference on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control 2012 (NMPC'12), Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands on August 23 - 27, 2012
Inverse-Dynamics MPC via Nullspace Resolution
Optimal control (OC) using inverse dynamics provides numerical benefits such
as coarse optimization, cheaper computation of derivatives, and a high
convergence rate. However, in order to take advantage of these benefits in
model predictive control (MPC) for legged robots, it is crucial to handle its
large number of equality constraints efficiently. To accomplish this, we first
(i) propose a novel approach to handle equality constraints based on nullspace
parametrization. Our approach balances optimality, and both dynamics and
equality-constraint feasibility appropriately, which increases the basin of
attraction to good local minima. To do so, we then (ii) adapt our
feasibility-driven search by incorporating a merit function. Furthermore, we
introduce (iii) a condensed formulation of the inverse dynamics that considers
arbitrary actuator models. We also develop (iv) a novel MPC based on inverse
dynamics within a perception locomotion framework. Finally, we present (v) a
theoretical comparison of optimal control with the forward and inverse
dynamics, and evaluate both numerically. Our approach enables the first
application of inverse-dynamics MPC on hardware, resulting in state-of-the-art
dynamic climbing on the ANYmal robot. We benchmark it over a wide range of
robotics problems and generate agile and complex maneuvers. We show the
computational reduction of our nullspace resolution and condensed formulation
(up to 47.3%). We provide evidence of the benefits of our approach by solving
coarse optimization problems with a high convergence rate (up to 10 Hz of
discretization). Our algorithm is publicly available inside CROCODDYL.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, under-revie
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