A Coordinated Nonlinear Model Predictive Control Scheme Over Non-acknowledged Networks

This work deals with a networked model predictive coordinated control scheme for discrete-time constrained nonlinear systems characterized by mutual physical interconnections and subject to local state-feedback control policies. A centralized controller, communicating with the distributed agents through a packet-based network, is designed to guarantee the uniform boundedness of the trajectories of the overall closed-loop system. In order to cope with time-varying transmission delays, typically affecting networked control systems, a network delay compensation strategy based on the time-stamping of data packets is adopted. With respect to the existent model-based approaches for nonlinear networked control system, the proposed method eliminates the need for acknowledgment messages, by suitably modifying the finite horizon optimization problem associated to the MPC. The proposed coordinated networked policy guarantees the robust enforcement of state and input constraints even in presence of bounded model uncertainty.