Non-Iterative Distributed Model Predictive Control

with Event-Triggered Communication

Felix Berkel, Steven Liu

Institute of Control Systems

Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Kaiserslautern

2018 American Control Conference, Milwaukee, USA

27.06.2018
 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Outline

1 Introduction

2 Proposed Strategy

3 Analysis

4 Illustrative Example

5 Conclusion

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

1 Introduction

2 Proposed Strategy

3 Analysis

4 Illustrative Example

5 Conclusion

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Distributed Control
Infrastructure systems
• examples: water distribution networks, electric
power system, building automation
• spatially distributed
• often large-scale
Centralized control
• simple and well-known approach
• but often infeasible due lack of
communicational/computational power
• undesired due to privacy reasons
Distributed control
• decomposition of the plant in subsystems
• local controller for each subsystem
• communication to improve the performance

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Constrained Linear Systems

Example set-up:
• Overall plant consists of M subsystems
• Linear time-invariant dynamically coupled
subsystems ∀t ∈ N, ∀i ∈ I1:M

Σi : x i,t+1 = Aii x i,t + B ii u i,t + Aij x j,t ,

X
| {z } j∈N
i
local dynamics | {z }
coupled dynamics

• Ni : set of subsystems that influences the

dynamics of i (neighbors)
• Communication with neighbors
• local MPC controller for each subsystem
• Local constraints on inputs and states:

x i,t ∈ Xi , u i,t ∈ Ui , ∀t ∈ N

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

DMPC with Event-Triggered Communication

Drawback of Existing DMPC Algorithms

• Challenging communication burden for high
performance satisfaction
Objectives Event-Triggered Communication
• Reduce communication effort for control of
constrained linear systems
• exchange information if there is a necessity
Related Work and Contribution
• Iterative DMPC with event-triggered
communication: [GS16]
• This paper: non-iterative DMPC with
event-triggered communication

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

1 Introduction

2 Proposed Strategy

3 Analysis

4 Illustrative Example

5 Conclusion

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Proposed Control Method

Main Idea:
• Predictors using decoupled models to predict neighbor states
• Event trigger that monitors actual state and state of local predictor
• Event: Communication of state values with neighbors
• Robust MPC controller ([CRZ01]) to account for inaccuracies

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Predictor and Event-Trigger

• Predictor running in local and neighboring subsystem

x̂ i,t+1 = Aii x̂ i,t + B i û i,t

• Events are generated according to the rule

x̂ i,t = Aii x̂ i,t−1 + B i û i,t−1 ,if x i,t − (Aii x̂ i,t−1 + B i û i,t−1 ) ∈ Ei (x i,t )
(

x i,t ,if x i,t − (Aii x̂ i,t−1 + B i û i,t−1 ) ∈

/ Ei (x i,t )

• The predictor can be implemented as û i,t is known from initialization.

• The error due to the event-triggered communication is bounded by

x i,t − x̂ i,t ∈ Ei (x i,t ) ⇔ x i,t − x̂ i,t ∈ Eiabs ∧ x i,t − x̂ i,t ∈ Eirel (x i,t )

• relative trigger set: E rel (x i ) = z i |z T S ei z i ≤ x T S xi x i


i i i
• convex and compact absolute trigger set E abs with 0 ∈ E abs
i i

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

MPC Controller
Prediction model for i ∈ I1:M over r ∈ I0:N−1 :

x̄ i,t+r +1 = Aii x̄ i,t+r + B i ū i,t+r + Aij x̌ j,t+r

X
(local model)
j∈Ni

x̌ [i]j,t+r +1 = Ajj x̌ j,t+r

[i]
+ B j û j,t+r
[i]
(neighbor model)
ū i,t+r = v̄ i,t+r + K ii x̄ i,t+r + j∈N K ij x̄ j,t+r
X
(local input)
i

û [i]j,t+r = v̌ j,t+r + K jj x̌ j,t+r

[i]
(neighbor input)
with x̄ i,t = x i,t (local measurement)
x̄ j,t
[i]
= x̂ j,t (neighbor state from predictor)
v̂ j,t+r (obtained from initialization)

N−1
li (ū i,t+r − K ii x̄ i,t+r − K ij x̄ [i]j,t+r ), li (v i ) = kv i k2Li
X X
Cost function: JN,i =
r =0 j∈Ni

Constraints: x̄ i,t+r ∈ X̄ir , ū i,t+r ∈ Ūir , x̄ i,t+N ∈ X̄if , v̄ i,t+r − v̌ i,t+r ∈ Vi

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Algorithm

• Measure x i,t
• If t = 0: Initialization
• Solve Initialization Problem
• Exchange the sequence V̂ i,0
• Evaluate the event trigger

x̂ i,t = Aii x̂ i,t−1 + B i û i,t−1 x i,t − (Aii x̂ i,t−1 + B i û i,t−1 ) ∈ Ei (x i,t )

(
,if
x i,t ,if x i,t − (Aii x̂ i,t−1 + B i û i,t−1 ) ∈/ Ei (x i,t )
• In case of event send x̂ i,t to neighbors
• Receive data x̂ j,t or update predictor x̂ j,t = Ajj x̂ j,t−1 + B j û j,t−1
• Solve MPC problem
• Update exchanged trajectory with zero: V̌ i,t+1 = v̌ Ti,t+1 , . . . , v̌ Ti,t+N−1 , 0 T
 

• Apply u ∗i,t = v ∗i,t + K ii x i,t + j∈N K ij x̂ j,t to plant

P
i

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

1 Introduction

2 Proposed Strategy

3 Analysis

4 Illustrative Example

5 Conclusion

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Recursive Feasibility and constraint satisfaction

• Incorrect neighbor models and
possibly outdated state values
→ bounded disturbance:

Aij Ejabs ,
M
W̄i0 =
j∈Ni

W̌j0 =F jj Ejabs ⊕ B j Vj
F jk Xk ⊕ (−B j K jk ) Ekabs
Mh i
⊕
k∈Nj

• (structured RPI) assumption on

terminal set (given in the paper)
Theorem 1
If initial feasible sequence V̂ i are available, then the MPC control law is recursively
feasible, x t ∈ X and u t ∈ U ∀t ∈ N.
Idea of Proof:
• e t ∈ Eiabs is bounded by the absolute part of event-trigger
• Constraint tightening and structured terminal set
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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Initialization

• Initially feasible sequences can be obtained from solving:

JN,i X̌
ˇ , Ǔ
 
minimize ˇ
i,0 i,0
X̌
ˇ ,Ǔ
i,0
ˇ
i,0

subject to x̌ˇi,N ∈ X̌ˇif ,

x̌ˇi,0 = x i,0 ,
and for r ∈ I0:N−1 :
x̌ˇi,r +1 = Aii x̌ˇi,t+r + B ii ǔ i,r ,
ǔˇ i,r = v̌ˇi,r + K ii x̌ˇi,r
ǔˇ i,r ∈ Ǔˇir ,
x̌ˇi,r ∈ X̌ˇir ,
• X̌ˇir , Ǔˇir and X̌ˇif are additionally constraint tightened sets
• The set where the optimization problem is feasible is X N .

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Convergence
The closed-loop evolves according to x t+1 = Fx t + Bv ∗t − K D e t .
Assumptions:
• F = A + BK is Schur.
• For P  0, Q̃  0, L = diag (Li ), S e = diag (S ei ) and S x = diag (S xi ):
P −F T PF −Q̃ −S x F T PBK D −F T PB
 
 ∗ S −K TD B T PBK D
e
−K D B PB 0
T T

∗ ∗ L−B T PB

Theorem 2
The closed-loop converges to the origin with region of attraction X N .

Idea of Proof:
• Use Lyapunov-like function VN∗ (x , V̌ ) = x T Px + JN∗ (x , V̌ )
• e t ∈ E rel is bounded by relative part of event-generator
• LMI condition ensures decay of VN∗ (x , V̌ ) over time

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

1 Introduction

2 Proposed Strategy

3 Analysis

4 Illustrative Example

5 Conclusion

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Simulation Set-up

• M = 4 consecutive inverted pendulums on a cart

• each cart can be controlled locally; coupling through springs
• regulation problem with operation close to constraints
• comparison: DMPC, decentralized MPC (DeMPC), centralized MPC (CMPC)
• data can be found in the paper

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Results
2
CMPC
DMPC
1 DeMPC 1
abs rel
Velocity

index subsystem
0 3

-1
2

-2
1
-0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
Angle t in s
5
1 2 3 4
Input force

-5
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
t in s

CMPC DMPC DeMPC

Cost 563.7 563.8 564.5
communication effort 100 % 14.6 % 0%
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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

1 Introduction

2 Proposed Strategy

3 Analysis

4 Illustrative Example

5 Conclusion

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Conclusion

• Consideration of linear dynamically coupled subsystems subject to constraints

• Event-triggered communication of the state values
• Strategy: robust DMPC controller combined with predictors and event-triggers
• Discussion of initialization of the algorithm
• Guarantees: Recursive feasibility and convergence of state to the origin
• Evaluation for an illustrative example

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

Thank you for your attention!

Questions?

Email: berkel@eit.uni-kl.de

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 Introduction Strategy Analysis Illustrative Example Conclusion

L. Chisci, J. A. Rossiter, and G. Zappa.

Systems with persistent disturbances: predictive control with restricted
constraints.
Automatica, 37:1019–1028, 2001.
Dominic Gross and Olaf Stursberg.
A cooperative distributed MPC algorithm with event-basd communication and
parallel optimization.
IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, 3(3):275–285, 2016.

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