On the Tuning of Predictive Controllers:  Inverse Optimality and the Minimum Variance Covariance Constrained Control Problem

This paper presents a systematic tuning approach for linear model predictive controllers based on the computationally attractive minimum variance covariance constrained control (MVC 3 ) problem. Unfortunately, the linear feedback policy generated by the MVC 3 problem is incompatible with the algorithmic framework of predictive control, in which the primary tuning vehicle is the selection of objective function weights. The main result of this paper is to show that all linear feedbacks generated by the MVC 3 problem exhibit the property of inverse optimality with respect to an appropriately defined linear quadratic regulator (LQR) problem. Thus, the proposed tuning scheme is a two-step procedure: application of the MVC 3 problem to achieve tuning objectives, followed by application of inverse optimality to determine the predictive control weights from the MVC 3 -generated linear feedback.