Contract-based Predictive Control of Distributed Systems with Plug and Play Capabilities

We address the problemof controlling interconnected, possibly large-scale systems of systems using distributed model predictive control. We consider the case in which the nonlinear subsystems can be coupled physically and can have shared constraints. The presented approach is based on the transmission of contracts between neighboring subsystems. Contracts are guaranteed sequences of possible future trajectories or trajectory sets of the coupling variables of the subsystems. We derive for the approach sufficient conditions for guaranteeing recursive feasibility and Input-to-State stability. Furthermore, we discuss the case of the so-called Plug & Play operations in which a subsystem in the network is replaced by a new, possibly different, one and when a subsystem is removed or added to the network.