Stochastic model predictive control design for load management system of aircraft electrical power distribution

Aircraft Electric Power Systems (EPS) route power from generators to vital avionics loads by configuring a set of electronic control switches denoted as contactors. The external loads applied to an EPS, power requirement of the system, electrical component failure events, and the dynamics of the system are inherently uncertain. In this paper, we address the problem of designing a stochastic optimal control strategy for the EPS contactors. We first represent mathematical models of different components of an EPS, and formalize the performance metrics of the system as well as the constraints that should be satisfied in a stochastic modeling framework. We then formulate the optimization of the system performance as a stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) problem, and present two special cases of the proposed SMPC analysis to approximate the problem with linear mixed-integer optimization problems. Finally, we report simulation results to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approach.