Stability Guarantees for Translational Thrust-Propelled Vehicles Dynamics Through NMPC Designs

Ngoc Thinh Nguyen (1) , Ionela Prodan (1) , Laurent Lefèvre (1)

1 LCIS - Laboratoire de Conception et d'Intégration des Systèmes

We propose two different nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) schemes (with and without terminal cost and constraints) for stabilizing the translational dynamics of thrust-propelled vehicles. Both approaches make use of an elaborated nonlinear feedback linearization controller and its associated ellipsoidal invariant set under restrictive input constraints, hence guaranteeing the closed-loop asymptotic stability. The terminal constraint set of the corresponding NMPC design is easy to tune due to its clear formulation expressed directly in terms of the tuning variables, while for the NMPC scheme without terminal constraint, the design allows to stabilize the system with a significantly shorter prediction horizon in comparison with the existing method in the literature. Simulation and experimental tests over a nano-drone platform validate the proposed approaches

Mots clés: NMPC; terminal constraint; unconstrained NMPC; feedback linearization; ellipsoidal invariant set; asymptotic stability; VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) vehicles

Domaines: Automatique / Robotique

Ngoc Thinh Nguyen, Ionela Prodan, Laurent Lefèvre. Stability Guarantees for Translational Thrust-Propelled Vehicles Dynamics Through NMPC Designs. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 2021, 29 (1), pp.207-219. ⟨10.1109/TCST.2020.2974146⟩. ⟨hal-03100110⟩