Stability and feasibility of state constrained MPC without stabilizing terminal constraints

In this paper we investigate stability and recursive feasibility of a nonlinear receding horizon control scheme without terminal constraints and costs but imposing state and control constraints. Under a local controllability assumption we show that every level set of the infinite horizon optimal value function is contained in the basin of attraction of the asymptotically stable equilibrium for sufficiently large optimization horizon NN.For stabilizable linear systems we show the same for any compact subset of the interior of the viability kernel. Moreover, estimates for the necessary horizon length NN are given via an analysis of the optimal value function at the boundary of the viability kernel.