A Suboptimal Economic Model Predictive Control Algorithm for Large and Infrequent Disturbances

We present a suboptimal economic model predictive control (MPC) algorithm that combines the strengths of two common suboptimal MPC approaches, one based on a warm-start and one based on an optimality gap. This algorithm is specifically designed to address a class of large and infrequent disturbances that are relevant when considering discrete actuators and production scheduling in control problems. We establish that this algorithm provides the same nominal performance guarantee as optimal economic MPC and is inherently robust, in an economic context, to large and infrequent disturbances. This inherent robustness guarantee is not attained by either individual algorithm. We conclude with a small production scheduling example to demonstrate the benefits of the proposed algorithm for a practical application.