Receding horizon control of multi-vehicle formations: a distributed implementation

We consider the control of interacting subsystems whose dynamics and constraints are decoupled, but whose state vectors are coupled non-separably in a single cost function of a finite horizon optimal control problem. For a given cost structure, we generate distributed optimal control problems for each subsystem and establish that a distributed receding horizon control implementation is stabilizing. The implementation requires synchronous updates and the exchange of the most recent optimal control trajectory between coupled subsystems prior to each update. Key requirements for stability are that each subsystem not deviates too far from the previous open-loop state trajectory, and that the receding horizon updates happen sufficiently fast. The venue of multi-vehicle formation stabilization is used to demonstrate the distributed implementation and simulations are provided.