Practically stable nonlinear receding-horizon control of multi-model systems

The objective of the paper is the design of a stabilizing switching control scheme for a class of nonlinear systems. Such systems are characterized by means of a finite set of nonlinear discrete-time models and for each model a finite set of receding-horizon nonlinear control laws is defined. This highlights a major feature of the considered class of switched systems with respect to previous works, namely, the possibility of switching both between different system models and between different controllers. Some practical stability concepts are then introduced and compared with classical stability definitions. The analysis of the different stability properties is carried out yielding theoretical constraints to be satisfied by the switching strategies in order to guarantee stable modes of behavior of the multi-model switched system. Some simulation results are finally reported showing the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.