arXiv subjects

Guanru Pan

Publications and source records attributed to Guanru Pan.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Uncertainty Propagation under Residual Disturbances: A Smart-Home Case Study

This paper presents a data-driven framework for uncertainty propagation under unmeasured or statistically unmodeled (unstructured) disturbances. We consider residual disturbances, which consolidate all unstructured disturbances into a single quantity that can be estimated from data. Under mild assumptions, the resulting stochastic predictor is causal and distributionally consistent, enabling efficient uncertainty quantification through polynomial chaos expansions and higher-order Chebyshev inequalities. The proposed method is validated using experimental data from a smart home in Norway.

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arXiv2025

Concave Comparison Functions for Accelerating Constrained Lyapunov Decay

What limits how fast a Lyapunov function can decay under input bounds? We address this question by showing how the shape of Lyapunov comparison functions governs guaranteed decay for control affine systems. Using a windowed nominal exponential rate together with the endpoint cap induced by actuator limits, we establish a strict ordering: concave comparison functions strictly outperform linear and convex ones, and strict concavity is necessary to improve the best achievable global exponential rate under a fixed endpoint cap. We derive a computable lower bound on the required actuation level for a target nominal rate and show that only concave shaping can reduce this level under the endpoint cap. We then establish a feasibility-preserving acceleration result: whenever a margin exists on a sublevel set, a feasible linear comparison can be replaced by a concave one that preserves feasibility while strictly increasing the guaranteed windowed decay. Finally, we give a tunable rational concave factor with controlled slope that yields a constructive design and integrates with CLF QP, as illustrated by examples.

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arXiv2025

A Stochastic Fundamental Lemma with Reduced Disturbance Data Requirements

Recently, the fundamental lemma by Willems et al. has been extended towards stochastic LTI systems subject to process disturbances. Using this lemma requires previously recorded data of inputs, outputs, and disturbances. In this paper, we exploit causality concepts of stochastic control to propose a variant of the stochastic fundamental lemma that does not require past disturbance data in the Hankel matrices. Our developments rely on polynomial chaos expansions and on the knowledge of the disturbance distribution. Similar to our previous results, the proposed variant of the fundamental lemma allows to predict future input-output trajectories of stochastic LTI systems. We draw upon a numerical example to illustrate the proposed variant in data-driven control context.

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arXiv2024

On Data-Driven Stochastic Output-Feedback Predictive Control

The fundamental lemma by Jan C. Willems and co-authors enables the representation of all input-output trajectories of a linear time-invariant system by measured input-output data. This result has proven to be pivotal for data-driven control. Building on a stochastic variant of the fundamental lemma, this paper presents a data-driven output-feedback predictive control scheme for stochastic Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) systems. The considered LTI systems are subject to non-Gaussian disturbances about which only information about their first two moments is known. Leveraging polynomial chaos expansions, the proposed scheme is centered around a data-driven stochastic Optimal Control Problem (OCP). Through tailored online design of initial conditions, we provide sufficient conditions for the recursive feasibility of the proposed output-feedback scheme based on a data-driven design of the terminal ingredients of the OCP. Furthermore, we provide a robustness analysis of the closed-loop performance. A numerical example illustrates the efficacy of the proposed scheme.

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arXiv2023

On a Stochastic Fundamental Lemma and Its Use for Data-Driven Optimal Control

Data-driven control based on the fundamental lemma by Willems et al. is frequently considered for deterministic LTI systems subject to measurement noise. However, besides measurement noise, stochastic disturbances might also directly affect the dynamics. In this paper, we leverage Polynomial Chaos Expansions (PCE) to extend the deterministic fundamental lemma towards stochastic systems. This extension allows to predict future statistical distributions of the inputs and outputs for stochastic LTI systems in data-driven fashion, i.e., based on the knowledge of previously recorded input-output-disturbance data and of the disturbance distribution we perform data-driven uncertainty propagation. Finally, we analyze data-driven stochastic optimal control problems and we propose a conceptual framework for data-driven stochastic predictive control. Numerical examples illustrate the efficacy of the proposed concepts.

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arXiv2023

Distributionally robust uncertainty quantification via data-driven stochastic optimal control

This paper studies optimal control problems of unknown linear systems subject to stochastic disturbances of uncertain distribution. Uncertainty about the stochastic disturbances is usually described via ambiguity sets of probability measures or distributions. Typically, stochastic optimal control requires knowledge of underlying dynamics and is as such challenging. Relying on a stochastic fundamental lemma from data-driven control and on the framework of polynomial chaos expansions, we propose an approach to reformulate distributionally robust optimal control problems with ambiguity sets as uncertain conic programs in a finite-dimensional vector space. We show how to construct these programs from previously recorded data and how to relax the uncertain conic program to numerically tractable convex programs via appropriate sampling of the underlying distributions. The efficacy of our method is illustrated via a numerical example.

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arXiv2023

Behavioral Theory for Stochastic Systems? A Data-driven Journey from Willems to Wiener and Back Again

The fundamental lemma by Jan C. Willems and co-workers, which is deeply rooted in behavioral systems theory, has become one of the supporting pillars of the recent progress on data-driven control and system analysis. This tutorial-style paper combines recent insights into stochastic and descriptor-system formulations of the lemma to further extend and broaden the formal basis for behavioral theory of stochastic linear systems. We show that series expansions -- in particular Polynomial Chaos Expansions (PCE) of $L^2$-random variables, which date back to Norbert Wiener's seminal work -- enable equivalent behavioral characterizations of linear stochastic systems. Specifically, we prove that under mild assumptions the behavior of the dynamics of the $L^2$-random variables is equivalent to the behavior of the dynamics of the series expansion coefficients and that it entails the behavior composed of sampled realization trajectories. We also illustrate the short-comings of the behavior associated to the time-evolution of the statistical moments. The paper culminates in the formulation of the stochastic fundamental lemma for linear (descriptor) systems, which in turn enables numerically tractable formulations of data-driven stochastic optimal control combining Hankel matrices in realization data (i.e. in measurements) with PCE concepts.

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arXiv2022

Towards data-driven stochastic predictive control

Data-driven predictive control based on the fundamental lemma by Willems et al. is frequently considered for deterministic LTI systems subject to measurement noise. However, little has been done on data-driven stochastic control. In this paper, we propose a data-driven stochastic predictive control scheme for LTI systems subject to possibly unbounded additive process disturbances. Based on a stochastic extension of the fundamental lemma and leveraging polynomial chaos expansions, we construct a data-driven surrogate Optimal Control Problem (OCP). Moreover, combined with an online selection strategy of the initial condition of the OCP, we provide sufficient conditions for recursive feasibility and for stability of the proposed data-driven predictive control scheme. Finally, two numerical examples illustrate the efficacy and closed-loop properties of the proposed scheme for process disturbances governed by different distributions.

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arXiv2022

Data-driven Stochastic Output-Feedback Predictive Control: Recursive Feasibility through Interpolated Initial Conditions

The paper investigates data-driven output-feedback predictive control of linear systems subject to stochastic disturbances. The scheme relies on the recursive solution of a suitable data-driven reformulation of a stochastic Optimal Control Problem (OCP), which allows for forward prediction and optimization of statistical distributions of inputs and outputs. Our approach avoids the use of parametric system models. Instead it is based on previously recorded data using a recently proposed stochastic variant of Willems' fundamental lemma. The stochastic variant of the lemma is applicable to a large class of linear dynamics subject to stochastic disturbances of Gaussian and non-Gaussian nature. To ensure recursive feasibility, the initial condition of the OCP -- which consists of information about past inputs and outputs -- is considered as an extra decision variable of the OCP. We provide sufficient conditions for recursive feasibility and closed-loop practical stability of the proposed scheme as well as performance bounds. Finally, a numerical example illustrates the efficacy and closed-loop properties of the proposed scheme.

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arXiv2022

NMPC in Active Subspaces: Dimensionality Reduction with Recursive Feasibility Guarantees

Dimensionality reduction of decision variables is a practical and classic method to reduce the computational burden in linear and Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC). Available results range from early move-blocking ideas to singular-value decomposition. For schemes more complex than move-blocking it is seemingly not straightforward to guarantee recursive feasibility of the receding-horizon optimization. Decomposing the space of decision variables related to the inputs into active and inactive complements, this paper proposes a general framework for effective feasibility-preserving dimensionality reduction in NMPC. We show how -- independently of the actual choice of the subspaces -- recursive feasibility can be established. Moreover, we propose the use of global sensitivity analysis to construct the active subspace in data-driven fashion based on user-defined criteria. Numerical examples illustrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme. Specifically, for a chemical reactor we obtain a significant reduction by factor $20-40$ at a closed-loop performance decay of less than $0.05\%$.

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