The multi-source electromechanical coupling makes the energy management of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) relatively nonlinear and complex especially in the types of 4-wheel-drive (4WD) FCEVs. Accurate state observing for complicated nonlinear system is the basis for fantastic energy managing in FCEVs. Aiming at releasing the energy-saving potential of FCEVs, a novel learning-based robust model predictive control (LRMPC) strategy is proposed for a 4WD FCEV, contributing to suitable power distribution among multiple energy sources. The well-designed strategy based on machine learning (ML) translates the knowledge of the nonlinear system to the explicit controlling scheme with superior robust performance. To start with, ML methods with high regression accuracy and superior generalization ability are trained offline to establish the precise state observer for SOC. Then, explicit data tables for SOC generated by state observer are used for grabbing accurate state changing, whose input features include the vehicle status and the states of vehicle components. To be specific, the vehicle velocity estimation for providing future speed reference is constructed by deep forest. Next, the components including explicit data tables and vehicle velocity estimation are combined with model predictive control (MPC) to release the state-of-the-art energy-saving ability for the multi-freedom system in FCEVs, whose name is LRMPC. At last, the detailed assessment is performed in simulation test to validate the advancing performance of LRMPC. The corresponding results highlight the optimal control effect in energy-saving potential and strong real-time application ability of LRMPC.
This paper considers the problem of supply-demand imbalances in Mobility-on-Demand (MoD) services, such as Uber or DiDi Rider. Such imbalances are due to uneven stochastic travel demand and can be prevented by proactively rebalance empty vehicles. To this end we propose a method that include estimated stochastic travel demand patterns into stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) for rebalancing of empty vehicles MoD ride-hailing service. More precisely, we first estimate passenger travel demand using Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), which provides demand uncertainty bounds for time pattern prediction. We then formulate a SMPC for the autonomous ride-hailing service and integrate demand predictions with uncertainty bounds into a receding horizon MoD optimization. In order to guarantee constraint satisfaction in the above optimization under estimated stochastic demand prediction, we employ a probabilistic constraining method with user defined confidence interval. Receding horizon MoD optimization with probabilistic constraints thereby calls for Chance Constrained Model Predictive Control (CCMPC). The benefits of the proposed method are twofold. First, travel demand uncertainty prediction from data can naturally be embedded into the MoD optimization framework. We show that for a given minimal fleet size the imbalance in each station can be kept below a certain threshold with a user defined probability. Second, CCMPC can further be relaxed into a Mixed-Integer-LP (MILP) and we show that the MILP can be solved as a corresponding Linear-Program which always admits a integral solution. Finally, we demonstrate through high-fidelity transportation simulations, that by tuning the confidence bound on the chance constraint close to optimal oracle performance can be achieved. The corresponding median customer wait time is reduced by 4% compared to using only the mean prediction of the GPR.
Achieving highly accurate dynamic or simulator models that are close to the real robot can facilitate model-based controls (e.g., model predictive control or linear-quadradic regulators), model-based trajectory planning (e.g., trajectory optimization), and decrease the amount of learning time necessary for reinforcement learning methods. Thus, the objective of this work is to learn the residual errors between a dynamic and/or simulator model and the real robot. This is achieved using a neural network, where the parameters of a neural network are updated through an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) formulation. Using this method, we model these residual errors with only small amounts of data -- a necessity as we improve the simulator/dynamic model by learning directly from real-world operation. We demonstrate our method on robotic hardware (e.g., manipulator arm, and a wheeled robot), and show that with the learned residual errors, we can further close the reality gap between dynamic models, simulations, and actual hardware.
One possible way of making thermal processing controllable is to gather real-time information on the product's current state. Often, sensory equipment cannot capture all relevant information easily or at all. Digital Twins close this gap with virtual probes in real-time simulations, synchronized with the process. This paper proposes a physics-based, data-driven Digital Twin framework for autonomous food processing. We suggest a lean Digital Twin concept that is executable at the device level, entailing minimal computational load, data storage, and sensor data requirements. This study focuses on a parsimonious experimental design for training non-intrusive reduced-order models (ROMs) of a thermal process. A correlation ($R=-0.76$) between a high standard deviation of the surface temperatures in the training data and a low root mean square error in ROM testing enables efficient selection of training data. The mean test root mean square error of the best ROM is less than 1 Kelvin (0.2 % mean average percentage error) on representative test sets. Simulation speed-ups of Sp $\approx$ 1.8E4 allow on-device model predictive control. The proposed Digital Twin framework is designed to be applicable within the industry. Typically, non-intrusive reduced-order modeling is required as soon as the modeling of the process is performed in software, where root-level access to the solver is not provided, such as commercial simulation software. The data-driven training of the reduced-order model is achieved with only one data set, as correlations are utilized to predict the training success a priori.
Model predictive control (MPC) is an optimal control method that predicts the future states of the system being controlled and estimates the optimal control inputs that drive the predicted states to the required reference. The computations of the MPC are performed at pre-determined sample instances over a finite time horizon. The number of sample instances and the horizon length determine the performance of the MPC and its computational cost. A long horizon with a large sample count allows the MPC to better estimate the inputs when the states have rapid changes over time, which results in better performance but at the expense of high computational cost. However, this long horizon is not always necessary, especially for slowly-varying states. In this case, a short horizon with less sample count is preferable as the same MPC performance can be obtained but at a fraction of the computational cost. In this paper, we propose an adaptive regression-based MPC that predicts the best minimum horizon length and the sample count from several features extracted from the time-varying changes of the states. The proposed technique builds a synthetic dataset using the system model and utilizes the dataset to train a support vector regressor that performs the prediction. The proposed technique is experimentally compared with several state-of-the-art techniques on both linear and non-linear models. The proposed technique shows a superior reduction in computational time with a reduction of about 35-65\% compared with the other techniques without introducing a noticeable loss in performance.
Model predictive control (MPC) for nonlinear systems suffers a trade-off between the model accuracy and real-time computational burden. One widely used approximation method is the successive linearization MPC (SL-MPC) with EKF method, in which the EKF algorithm is to handle unmeasured disturbances and unavailable full states information. Inspired by this, an interpretative and adaptive MPC (IA-MPC) method, is presented in this paper. In our IA-MPC method, a linear state-space model is firstly obtained by performing the linearization of a first-principle-based model at the initial point, and then this linear state-space model is transformed into an equivalent ARX model. This interpretative ARX model is then updated online by the EKF algorithm, which is modified as a decoupled one without matrix-inverse operator. The corresponding ARX-based MPC problem are solved by our previous construction-free, matrix-free and library-free CDAL-ARX algorithm. This simple library-free C-code implementation would significantly reduce the difficulty in deploying nonlinear MPC on embedded platforms. The performance of the IA-MPC method is tested against the nonlinear MPC with EKF and SL-MPC with EKF method in four typical nonlinear benchmark examples, which show the effectiveness of our IA-MPC method.
This paper presents a rapid-prototype Model Predictive Control (MPC) tool based on the gPROMS platform, with the support for the whole MPC design workflow. The gPROMS-MPC tool can not only directly interact with a first-principle-based gPROMS model for closed-loop simulations but also utilizes its mathematical information to derive simplified control-oriented models, basically via linearization techniques. It can inherit the interpretability of the first-principle-based gPROMS model, unlike the PAROC framework in which the control-oriented models are obtained from black-box system identification based on gPROMS simulation data. The gPROMS-MPC tool allows users to choose when to linearize such as at each sampling time (successive linearization) or some specific points to obtain one or multiple good linear models. The gPROMS-MPC tool implements our previous construction-free CDAL and the online parametric active-set qpOASES algorithms to solve sparse or condensed MPC problem formulations, respectively, for possible successive linearization or high state-dimension cases. Our CDAL algorithm is also matrix-free and library-free, thus supporting embedded C-code generation. After many example validations of the tool, here we only show one example to investigate the performance of different MPC schemes.
This paper presents a distributed data-driven control to regulate the voltage in an alternate current microgrid (MG). Following the hierarchical control frame for MGs, a secondary control for voltage is designed with a data-driven strategy using the Koopman operator. The Koopman operator approach represents the nonlinear behavior of voltage as a linear problem in the space of observables or lifted space. The representation in the lifted space is used together with linear consensus to design a model predictive control (MPC). The complete algorithm is proved in an MG model including changes in load, transmission lines, and the communication graph. The data-driven model regulates voltage using a distributed approach based only on local measurements, and includes reactive power constraints and control cost minimization.
The application of distributed model predictive controllers (DMPC) for multi-agent systems (MASs) necessitates communication between agents, yet the consequence of communication data rates is typically overlooked. This work focuses on developing stability-guaranteed control methods for MASs with limited data rates. Initially, a distributed optimization algorithm with dynamic quantization is considered for solving the DMPC problem. Due to the limited data rate, the optimization process suffers from inexact iterations caused by quantization noise and premature termination, leading to sub-optimal solutions. In response, we propose a novel real-time DMPC framework with a quantization refinement scheme that updates the quantization parameters on-line so that both the quantization noise and the optimization sub-optimality decrease asymptotically. To facilitate the stability analysis, we treat the sub-optimally controlled MAS, the quantization refinement scheme, and the optimization process as three interconnected subsystems. The cyclic-small-gain theorem is used to derive sufficient conditions on the quantization parameters for guaranteeing the stability of the system under a limited data rate. Finally, the proposed algorithm and theoretical findings are demonstrated in a multi-AUV formation control example.
Constraint handling during tracking operations is at the core of many real-world control implementations and is well understood when dynamic models of the underlying system exist, yet becomes more challenging when data-driven models are used to describe the nonlinear system at hand. We seek to combine the nonlinear modeling capabilities of a wide class of neural networks with the constraint-handling guarantees of model predictive control (MPC) in a rigorous and online computationally tractable framework. The class of networks considered can be captured using Koopman operators, and are integrated into a Koopman-based tracking MPC (KTMPC) for nonlinear systems to track piecewise constant references. The effect of model mismatch between original nonlinear dynamics and its trained Koopman linear model is handled by using a constraint tightening approach in the proposed tracking MPC strategy. By choosing two Lyapunov functions, we prove that solution is recursively feasible and input-to-state stable to a neighborhood of both online and offline optimal reachable steady outputs in the presence of bounded modeling errors under mild assumptions. Finally, we demonstrate the results on a numerical example, before applying the proposed approach to the problem of reference tracking by an autonomous ground vehicle.
Wind farm flow control aims to improve wind turbine performance by reducing aerodynamic wake interaction between turbines. Dynamic, physics-based models of wind farm flows have been essential for exploring control strategies such as wake redirection and dynamic induction control. Free vortex methods can provide a computationally efficient way to model wind turbine wake dynamics for control optimisation. We present a control-oriented free-vortex wake model of a 2D and 3D actuator disc to represent wind turbine wakes. The novel derivation of the discrete adjoint equations allows efficient gradient evaluation for gradient-based optimisation in an economic model-predictive control algorithm. Initial results are presented for mean power maximisation in a two-turbine case study. An induction control signal is found using the 2D model that is roughly periodic and supports previous results on dynamic induction control to stimulate wake mixing. The 3D model formulation effectively models a curled wake under yaw misalignment. Under time-varying wind direction, the optimisation finds solutions demonstrating both wake steering and a smooth transition to greedy control. The free-vortex wake model with gradient information shows potential for efficient optimisation and provides a promising way to further explore dynamic wind farm flow control.
In this paper, we present a distributed model predictive control (DMPC) scheme for dynamically decoupled systems which are subject to state constraints, coupling state constraints and input constraints. In the proposed control scheme, neighbor-to-neighbor communication suffices and all subsystems solve their local optimization problem in parallel. The approach relies on consistency constraints which define a neighborhood around each subsystem's reference trajectory where the state of the respective subsystem is guaranteed to stay in. Reference trajectories and consistency constraints are known to neighboring subsystems. Contrary to other relevant approaches, the reference trajectories are improved iteratively. Besides, the presented approach allows the formulation of convex optimization problems even in the presence of non-convex state constraints. The algorithm's effectiveness is demonstrated with a simulation.
The large adoption of EVs brings practical interest to the operation optimization of the charging station. The joint scheduling of pricing and charging control will achieve a win-win situation both for the charging station and EV drivers, thus enhancing the operational capability of the station. We consider this important problem in this paper and make the following contributions. First, a joint scheduling model of pricing and charging control is developed to maximize the expected social welfare of the charging station considering the Quality of Service and the price fluctuation sensitivity of EV drivers. It is formulated as a Markov decision process with variance criterion to capture uncertainties during operation. Second, a two-phase on-line policy learning algorithm is proposed to solve this joint scheduling problem. In the first phase, it implements event-based policy iteration to find the optimal pricing scheme, while in the second phase, it implements scenario-based model predictive control for smart charging under the updated pricing scheme. Third, by leveraging the performance difference theory, the optimality of the proposed algorithm is theoretically analyzed. Numerical experiments for a charging station with distributed generation and energy storage demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and the improved social welfare of the charging station.
This paper investigates the problem of robust model predictive control (RMPC) of linear-time-invariant (LTI) discrete-time systems subject to structured uncertainty and bounded disturbances. Typically, the constrained RMPC problem with state-feedback parameterizations is nonlinear (and nonconvex) with a prohibitively high computational burden for online implementation. To remedy this, a novel approach is proposed to linearize the state-feedback RMPC problem, with minimal conservatism, through the use of semidefinite relaxation techniques. The proposed algorithm computes the state-feedback gain and perturbation online by solving a linear matrix inequality (LMI) optimization that, in comparison to other schemes in the literature is shown to have a substantially reduced computational burden without adversely affecting the tracking performance of the controller. Additionally, an offline strategy that provides initial feasibility on the RMPC problem is presented. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated through numerical examples from the literature.
We develop a novel form of differentiable predictive control (DPC) with safety and robustness guarantees based on control barrier functions. DPC is an unsupervised learning-based method for obtaining approximate solutions to explicit model predictive control (MPC) problems. In DPC, the predictive control policy parametrized by a neural network is optimized offline via direct policy gradients obtained by automatic differentiation of the MPC problem. The proposed approach exploits a new form of sampled-data barrier function to enforce offline and online safety requirements in DPC settings while only interrupting the neural network-based controller near the boundary of the safe set. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated in simulation.
Connectivity-enabled automation of distributed control systems allow for better anticipation of system disturbances and better prediction of the effects of actuator limitations on individual agents when incorporating a model. Automated convoy of heavy-duty trucks in the form of platooning is one such application designed to maintain close gaps between trucks to exploit drafting benefits and improve fuel economy, and has traditionally been handled with classically-designed connected and adaptive cruise control (CACC). This paper is motivated by demonstrated limitations of such a control strategy, in which a classical CACC was unable to efficiently handle real-world road grade and velocity transient disturbances without the assistance of fleet operator intervention, and is non-adaptive to varied hardware and loading conditions of the operating truck. This automation strategy is addressed by forming a cooperative model predictive control (MPC) for eco-platooning that considers interactions with trailing trucks to incentivize platoon harmonization under road disturbances, velocity transients, and engine limitations, and further improves energy economy by reducing unnecessary engine effort. This is accomplished for each truck by sharing load, maximum engine power, transmission ratios, control states, and intended trajectories with its nearest neighbors. The performance of the considerate and cooperative strategy was demonstrated on a real-world driving scenario against a similar non-considerate control strategy, and overall it was found that the considerate strategy significantly improved harmonization between the platooned trucks in a real-time implementable manner.
We take a divide and conquer approach to design controllers for reachability problems given large-scale linear systems with polyhedral constraints on states, controls, and disturbances. Such systems are made of small subsystems with coupled dynamics. We treat the couplings as additional disturbances and use assume-guarantee (AG) contracts to characterize these disturbance sets. For each subsystem, we design and implement a robust controller locally, subject to its own constraints and contracts. The main contribution of this paper is a method to derive the contracts via a novel parameterization and a corresponding potential function that characterizes the distance to the correct composition of controllers and contracts, where all contracts are held. We show that the potential function is convex in the contract parameters. This enables the subsystems to negotiate the contracts with the gradient information from the dual of their local synthesis optimization problems in a distributed way, facilitating compositional control synthesis that scales to large systems. We present numerical examples, including a scalability study on a system with tens of thousands of dimensions, and a case study on applying our method to a distributed Model Predictive Control (MPC) problem in a power system.
The Koopman framework proposes a linear representation of finite-dimensional nonlinear systems through a generally infinite-dimensional globally linear embedding. Originally, the Koopman formalism has been derived for autonomous systems. In applications for systems with inputs, generally a linear time invariant (LTI) form of the Koopman model is assumed, as it facilitates the use of control techniques such as linear quadratic regulation and model predictive control. However, it can be easily shown that this assumption is insufficient to capture the dynamics of the underlying nonlinear system. Proper theoretical extension for actuated continuous-time systems with a linear or a control-affine input has been worked out only recently, however extensions to discrete-time systems and general continuous-time systems have not been developed yet. In the present paper, we systematically investigate and analytically derive lifted forms under inputs for a rather wide class of nonlinear systems in both continuous and discrete time. We prove that the resulting lifted representations give Koopman models where the state transition is linear, but the input matrix becomes state-dependent (state and input-dependent in the discrete-time case), giving rise to a specially structured linear parameter-varying (LPV) description of the underlying system. We also provide error bounds on how much the dependency of the input matrix contributes to the resulting representation and how well the system behaviour can be approximated by an LTI Koopman representation. The introduced theoretical insight greatly helps for performing proper model structure selection in system identification with Koopman models as well as making a proper choice for LTI or LPV techniques for the control of nonlinear systems through the Koopman approach.
The Unscented Transform which is the basis of the Unscented Kalman Filter, UKF, is used here to develop a novel predictive controller for non-linear plants, called the Unscented Transform Controller, UTC. The UTC can be seen as the dual of the UKF, the same way as the LQG regulator and the Kalman Filter are related. The UTC is demonstrated on the control of complex maneuvers in free fall of a virtual skydiver the model of which was verified in wind tunnel and free fall experiments.
In distributed predictive control structures, communication among agents is required to achieve a consensus and approach an optimal global behavior. Such negotiation mechanisms are sensitive to attacks on these exchanges. This paper proposes a monitoring scheme that detects and mitigates these attacks' effects in a resource allocation framework. The performance of the proposed method is illustrated through simulations of the temperature control of multiple rooms under power scarcity.