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This paper presents a cloud-based learning model predictive controller that integrates three interacting components: a set of agents, which must learn to perform a finite set of tasks with the minimum possible local cost; a coordinator, which assigns the tasks to the agents; and the cloud, which stores data to facilitate the agents' learning. The tasks consist in traveling repeatedly between a set of target states while satisfying input and state constraints. In turn, the state constraints may change in time for each of the possible tasks. To deal with it, different modes of operation, which establish different restrictions, are defined. The agents' inputs are found by solving local model predictive control (MPC) problems where the terminal set and cost are defined from previous trajectories. The data collected by each agent is uploaded to the cloud and made accessible to all their peers. Likewise, similarity between tasks is exploited to accelerate the learning process. The applicability of the proposed approach is illustrated by simulation results., Comment: Conference on Decision and Control 2022

Coalitional control is concerned with the management of multi-agent systems where cooperation cannot be taken for granted (due to, e.g., market competition, logistics). This paper proposes a model predictive control (MPC) framework aimed at large-scale dynamically-coupled systems whose individual components, possessing a limited model of the system, are controlled independently, pursuing possibly competing objectives. The emergence of cooperating clusters of controllers is contemplated through an autonomous negotiation protocol, based on the characterization as a coalitional game of the benefit derived by a broader feedback and the alignment of the individual objectives. Specific mechanisms for the cooperative benefit redistribution that relax the cognitive requirements of the game are employed to compensate for possible local cost increases due to cooperation. As a result, the structure of the overall MPC feedback can be adapted online to the degree of interaction between different parts of the system, while satisfying the individual interests of the agents. A wide-area control application for the power grid with the objective of minimizing frequency deviations and undesired inter-area power transfers is used as study case., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures

Recently developed control methods with strong disturbance rejection capabilities provide a useful option for control design. The key lies in a general concept of disturbance and effective ways to estimate and compensate the disturbance. This work extends the concept of disturbance as the mismatch between a system model and the true dynamics, and estimates and compensates the disturbance for multi-input multi-output linear/nonlinear systems described in a general form. The results presented do not need to assume the disturbance to be independent of the control inputs or satisfy a certain matching condition, and do not require the system to be expressible in an integral canonical form as required by algorithms previously described in literature. The estimator and controller are designed under a state tracking framework, and sufficient conditions for the closed-loop stability are presented. The performance of the resulting controller relies on a co-design of the system model, the state and disturbance observer, and the controller. Numerical experiments on a first-order system and an inverted pendulum under uncertainties are used to illustrate the control design method and demonstrate its efficacy., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, journal (accepted for publication)

This work presents a model predictive controller (MPC) that is able to handle linear time-varying (LTV) plants with PWM control. The MPC is based on a planner that employs a PAM or impulsive approximation as a hot-start and then uses explicit linearization around successive PWM solutions for rapidly improving the solution by means of linear programming. As an example, the problem of rendezvous of spacecraft for eccentric target orbits is considered. The problem is modeled by the LTV Tschauner-Hempel equations, whose transition matrix is explicit; this is exploited by the algorithm for rapid convergence. The efficacy of the method is shown in a simulation study., Comment: Preprint submitted to Control Engineering Practice