An Execution-time-certified Riccati-based IPM Algorithm for RTI-based Input-constrained NMPC

Establishing an execution time certificate in deploying model predictive control (MPC) is a pressing and challenging requirement. As nonlinear MPC (NMPC) results in nonlinear programs, differing from quadratic programs encountered in linear MPC, deriving an execution time certificate for NMPC seems an impossible task. Our prior work introduced an input-constrained MPC algorithm with the exact and only dimension-dependent (data-independent) number of floating-point operations ([flops]). This paper extends it to input-constrained NMPC problems via the real-time iteration (RTI) scheme, which results in data-varying (but dimension-invariant) input-constrained MPC problems. Therefore, applying our previous algorithm can certify the execution time based on the assumption that processors perform fixed [flops] in constant time. As the RTI-based scheme generally results in MPC with a long prediction horizon, this paper employs the efficient factorized Riccati recursion, whose computational cost scales linearly with the prediction horizon, to solve the Newton system at each iteration. The execution-time certified capability of the algorithm is theoretically and numerically validated through a case study involving nonlinear control of the chaotic Lorenz system.