Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Path Following Problems

This paper presents a general nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) scheme for path following problems. Sufficient conditions for recursive feasibility and asymptotic convergence of the given scheme are presented. Furthermore, a method of choosing a suitable terminal penalty and the corresponding terminal constraint is proposed. To illustrate the implementation of the NMPC scheme, the path following problem of a car-like mobile robot is discussed and the control performance is confirmed by simulation results.