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1. Nonlinear Hierarchical MPC for Maximizing Aircraft Thermal Endurance

   https://doi.org/10.1115/DSCC2020-3203  

   Leister, Daniel D. ; Koeln, Justin P. ( October 2020 , Dynamic Systems and Control Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   In modern high-performance aircraft, the Fuel Thermal Management System (FTMS) plays a critical role in the overall thermal energy management of the aircraft. Actuator and state constraints in the FTMS limit the thermal endurance and capabilities of the aircraft. Thus, an effective control strategy must plan and execute optimized transient fuel mass and temperature trajectories subject to these constraints over the entire course of operation. For the control of linear systems, hierarchical Model Predictive Control (MPC) has shown to be an effective approach to coordinating both short- and long-term system operation with reduced computational complexity. However, for controlling nonlinear systems, common approaches to system linearization may no longer be effective due to the long prediction horizons of upper-level controllers. This paper explores the limitations of using linear models for hierarchical MPC of the nonlinear FTMS found in aircraft. Numerical simulation results show that linearized models work well for lower-level controllers with short prediction horizons but lead to significant reductions in aircraft thermal endurance when used for upper-level controllers with long prediction horizons. Therefore, a mixed-linearity hierarchical MPC formulation is presented with a nonlinear upper-level controller and a linear lower-level controller to achieve both high performance and high computational efficiency. 

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2. Networked model predictive control using a wavelet neural network

   https://doi.org/10.1002/adc2.55  

   Khodabandehlou, Hamid ; Fadali, Mohammed Sami ( November 2020 , Advanced Control for Applications)

   This study proposes using a wavelet neural network (WNN) with a feedforward component and a model predictive controller (MPC) for online nonlinear system identification and control over a communication network. The WNN performs the online identification of the nonlinear system. The MPC uses the model to predict the future outputs of the system over an extended prediction horizon and calculates the optimal future inputs by minimizing a controller cost function. A computationally efficient formulation for the controller is presented to reduce the computational complexity of the MPC for online implementation and Lyapunov theory is used to prove the stability of the MPC. The methodology is applied to the online identification and control of an unmanned autonomous vehicle. Simulation results show that the MPC with an extended prediction horizon can effectively control the system in the presence of fixed or random network delay.

    

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3. Distributed Model Predictive Control for Connected and Automated Vehicles in the Presence of Uncertainty

   https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4054696  

   HomChaudhuri, Baisravan ; Bhattacharyya, Viranjan ( January 2022 , Journal of Autonomous Vehicles and Systems)

   This article focuses on the development of distributed robust model predictive control (MPC) methods for multiple connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) to ensure their safe operation in the presence of uncertainty. The proposed layered control framework includes reference trajectory generation, distributionally robust obstacle occupancy set computation, distributed state constraint set evaluation, data-driven linear model representation, and robust tube-based MPC design. To enable distributed operation among the CAVs, we present a method, which exploits sampling-based reference trajectory generation and distributed constraint set evaluation methods, that decouples the coupled collision avoidance constraint among the CAVs. This is followed by data-driven linear model representation of the nonlinear system to evaluate the convex equivalent of the nonlinear control problem. Finally, to ensure safe operation in the presence of uncertainty, this article employs a robust tube-based MPC method. For a multiple CAV lane change problem, simulation results show the efficacy of the proposed controller in terms of computational efficiency and the ability to generate safe and smooth CAV trajectories in a distributed fashion.

    

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4. Vehicle Path-Tracking Linear-Time-Varying Model Predictive Control Controller Parameter Selection Considering Central Process Unit Computational Load

   https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4042196  

   Wang, Zejiang ; Bai, Yunhao ; Wang, Junmin ; Wang, Xiaorui ( May 2019 , Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control)

   Model predictive control (MPC) has drawn a considerable amount of attention in automotive applications during the last decade, partially due to its systematic capacity of treating system constraints. Even though having received broad acknowledgements, there still exist two intrinsic shortcomings on this optimization-based control strategy, namely the extensive online calculation burden and the complex tuning process, which hinder MPC from being applied to a wider extent. To tackle these two drawbacks, different methods were proposed. Nevertheless, the majority of these approaches treat these two issues independently. However, parameter tuning in fact has double-sided effects on both the controller performance and the real-time computational burden. Due to the lack of theoretical tools for globally analyzing the complex conflicts among MPC parameter tuning, controller performance optimization, and computational burden easement, a look-up table-based online parameter selection method is proposed in this paper to help a vehicle track its reference path under both the stability and computational capacity constraints. matlab-carsim conjoint simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. 

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5. Reinforcement Learning-Based Home Energy Management System for Resiliency

   https://doi.org/10.23919/ACC50511.2021.9483162  

   Raman, Naren Srivaths ; Gaikwad, Ninad ; Barooah, Prabir ; Meyn, Sean P. ( May 2021 , American Control Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   With increase in the frequency of natural disasters such as hurricanes that disrupt the supply from the grid, there is a greater need for resiliency in electric supply. Rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels along with batteries can provide resiliency to a house in a blackout due to a natural disaster. Our previous work showed that intelligence can reduce the size of a PV+battery system for the same level of post-blackout service compared to a conventional system that does not employ intelligent control. The intelligent controller proposed is based on model predictive control (MPC), which has two main challenges. One, it requires simple yet accurate models as it involves real-time optimization. Two, the discrete actuation for residential loads (on/off) makes the underlying optimization problem a mixed-integer program (MIP) which is challenging to solve. An attractive alternative to MPC is reinforcement learning (RL) as the real-time control computation is both model-free and simple. These points of interest accompany certain trade-offs; RL requires computationally expensive offline learning, and its performance is sensitive to various design choices. In this work, we propose an RL-based controller. We compare its performance with the MPC controller proposed in our prior work and a non-intelligent baseline controller. The RL controller is found to provide a resiliency performance — by commanding critical loads and batteries—similar to MPC with a significant reduction in computational effort. 

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