Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) has become the accepted methodology to solve complex control problems related to process industries. The main motivation behind explicit NMPC is that an explicit state feedback law avoids the need for executing a numerical optimization algorithm in real time. The benefits of an explicit solution, in addition to the efficient on-line computations, include also verifiability of the implementation and the possibility to design embedded control systems with low software and hardware complexity. This book considers the multi-parametric Nonlinear Programming (mp-NLP) approaches to explicit approximate NMPC of constrained nonlinear systems, developed by the authors, as well as their applications to various NMPC problem formulations and several case studies. The following types of nonlinear systems are considered, resulting in different NMPC problem formulations: ؠ Nonlinear systems described by first-principles models and nonlinear systems described by black-box models; - Nonlinear systems with continuous control inputs and nonlinear systems with quantized control inputs; - Nonlinear systems without uncertainty and nonlinear systems with uncertainties (polyhedral description of uncertainty and stochastic description of uncertainty); - Nonlinear systems, consisting of interconnected nonlinear sub-systems. The proposed mp-NLP approaches are illustrated with applications to several case studies, which are taken from diverse areas such as automotive mechatronics, compressor control, combustion plant control, reactor control, pH maintaining system control, cart and spring system control, and diving computers.

This book offers a novel approach to adaptive control and provides a sound theoretical background to designing robust adaptive control systems with guaranteed transient performance. It focuses on the more typical role of adaptation as a means of coping with uncertainties in the system model.

For the first time, a textbook that brings together classical predictive control with treatment of up-to-date robust and stochastic techniques. Model Predictive Control describes the development of tractable algorithms for uncertain, stochastic, constrained systems. The starting point is classical predictive control and the appropriate formulation of performance objectives and constraints to provide guarantees of closed-loop stability and performance. Moving on to robust predictive control, the text explains how similar guarantees may be obtained for cases in which the model describing the system dynamics is subject to additive disturbances and parametric uncertainties. Open- and closed-loop optimization are considered and the state of the art in computationally tractable methods based on uncertainty tubes presented for systems with additive model uncertainty. Finally, the tube framework is also applied to model predictive control problems involving hard or probabilistic constraints for the cases of multiplicative and stochastic model uncertainty. The book provides: extensive use of illustrative examples; sample problems; and discussion of novel control applications such as resource allocation for sustainable development and turbine-blade control for maximized power capture with simultaneously reduced risk of turbulence-induced damage. Graduate students pursuing courses in model predictive control or more generally in advanced or process control and senior undergraduates in need of a specialized treatment will find Model Predictive Control an invaluable guide to the state of the art in this important subject. For the instructor it provides an authoritative resource for the construction of courses.

Thepastthree decadeshaveseenrapiddevelopmentin the areaofmodelpred- tive control with respect to both theoretical and application aspects. Over these 30 years, model predictive control for linear systems has been widely applied, especially in the area of process control. However, today’s applications often require driving the process over a wide region and close to the boundaries of - erability, while satisfying constraints and achieving near-optimal performance. Consequently, the application of linear control methods does not always lead to satisfactory performance, and here nonlinear methods must be employed. This is one of the reasons why nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) has - joyed signi?cant attention over the past years,with a number of recent advances on both the theoretical and application frontier. Additionally, the widespread availability and steadily increasing power of today’s computers, as well as the development of specially tailored numerical solution methods for NMPC, bring thepracticalapplicabilityofNMPCwithinreachevenforveryfastsystems.This has led to a series of new, exciting developments, along with new challenges in the area of NMPC.

Model Predictive Control is an important technique used in the process control industries. It has developed considerably in the last few years, because it is the most general way of posing the process control problem in the time domain. The Model Predictive Control formulation integrates optimal control, stochastic control, control of processes with dead time, multivariable control and future references. The finite control horizon makes it possible to handle constraints and non linear processes in general which are frequently found in industry. Focusing on implementation issues for Model Predictive Controllers in industry, it fills the gap between the empirical way practitioners use control algorithms and the sometimes abstractly formulated techniques developed by researchers. The text is firmly based on material from lectures given to senior undergraduate and graduate students and articles written by the authors.

With a simple approach that includes real-time applications and algorithms, this book covers the theory of model predictive control (MPC).

Controlling a system with control and state constraints is one of the most important problems in control theory, but also one of the most challenging. Another important but just as demanding topic is robustness against uncertainties in a controlled system. One of the most successful approaches, both in theory and practice, to control constrained systems is model predictive control (MPC). The basic idea in MPC is to repeatedly solve optimization problems on-line to find an optimal input to the controlled system. In recent years, much effort has been spent to incorporate the robustness problem into this framework. The main part of the thesis revolves around minimax formulations of MPC for uncertain constrained linear discrete-time systems. A minimax strategy in MPC means that worst-case performance with respect to uncertainties is optimized. Unfortunately, many minimax MPC formulations yield intractable optimization problems with exponential complexity. Minimax algorithms for a number of uncertainty models are derived in the thesis. These include systems with bounded external additive disturbances, systems with uncertain gain, and systems described with linear fractional transformations. The central theme in the different algorithms is semidefinite relaxations. This means that the minimax problems are written as uncertain semidefinite programs, and then conservatively approximated using robust optimization theory. The result is an optimization problem with polynomial complexity. The use of semidefinite relaxations enables a framework that allows extensions of the basic algorithms, such as joint minimax control and estimation, and approx- imation of closed-loop minimax MPC using a convex programming framework. Additional topics include development of an efficient optimization algorithm to solve the resulting semidefinite programs and connections between deterministic minimax MPC and stochastic risk-sensitive control. The remaining part of the thesis is devoted to stability issues in MPC for continuous-time nonlinear unconstrained systems. While stability of MPC for un-constrained linear systems essentially is solved with the linear quadratic controller, no such simple solution exists in the nonlinear case. It is shown how tools from modern nonlinear control theory can be used to synthesize finite horizon MPC controllers with guaranteed stability, and more importantly, how some of the tech- nical assumptions in the literature can be dispensed with by using a slightly more complex controller.

Recent developments in model-predictive control promise remarkable opportunities for designing multi-input, multi-output control systems and improving the control of single-input, single-output systems. This volume provides a definitive survey of the latest model-predictive control methods available to engineers and scientists today. The initial set of chapters present various methods for managing uncertainty in systems, including stochastic model-predictive control. With the advent of affordable and fast computation, control engineers now need to think about using “computationally intensive controls,” so the second part of this book addresses the solution of optimization problems in “real” time for model-predictive control. The theory and applications of control theory often influence each other, so the last section of Handbook of Model Predictive Control rounds out the book with representative applications to automobiles, healthcare, robotics, and finance. The chapters in this volume will be useful to working engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, as well as students and faculty interested in the progression of control theory. Future developments in MPC will no doubt build from concepts demonstrated in this book and anyone with an interest in MPC will find fruitful information and suggestions for additional reading.

From the reviews: [The authors] "...have succeeded in their intention to produce the first reference in the area that will be available for a broad audience. I think that this book will be a standard reference for a long time." Control Engineering Practice