Application of linear gauss pseudospectral method in model predictive control

• A MPC method aimed at solving the nonlinear optimal control problem is presented.
• Analysis of boundary control and singularity of differential approximation matrices.
• A design of terminal impact is employed to evaluate the performance of this method.
• The results suggest that this method is applicable and of high efficiency and accuracy.

This paper presents a model predictive control(MPC) method aimed at solving the nonlinear optimal control problem with hard terminal constraints and quadratic performance index. The method combines the philosophies of the nonlinear approximation model predictive control, linear quadrature optimal control and Gauss Pseudospectral method. The current control is obtained by successively solving linear algebraic equations transferred from the original problem via linearization and the Gauss Pseudospectral method. It is not only of high computational efficiency since it does not need to solve nonlinear programming problem, but also of high accuracy though there are a few discrete points. Therefore, this method is suitable for on-board applications. A design of terminal impact with a specified direction is carried out to evaluate the performance of this method. Augmented PN guidance law in the three-dimensional coordinate system is applied to produce the initial guess. And various cases for target with straight-line movements are employed to demonstrate the applicability in different impact angles. Moreover, performance of the proposed method is also assessed by comparison with other guidance laws. Simulation results indicate that this method is not only of high computational efficiency and accuracy, but also applicable in the framework of guidance design.