Robust control of saturating systems with Markovian packet dropouts under distributed MPC

In this work, a robust control methodology is presented for saturating systems with packet dropouts under distributed model predictive control framework. The sequence of time instants when data dropout happens is modeled by a Markov chain. A packet dropout compensation strategy and an augmented Markov jump linear model are considered simultaneously. To design distributed model predictive controllers, the entire system is decomposed into coupled subsystems. Considering the influences of neighbor subsystems, a distributed predictive control synthesis involving packet dropouts and Markovian probabilities is developed by minimizing the worst-case performance index at each time instant. The input saturation constraints are also incorporated into the robust controller design under distributed model predictive control framework. Furthermore, both the recursive feasibility of the proposed robust control under distributed model predictive control and the closed-loop mean-square stability are proved. To show the effectiveness, the proposed methodology is validated by simulations on a continuous stirred tank reactor process and a DC control system.