Applying new optimization algorithms to more predictive control

The connections between optimization and control theory have been explored by many researchers and optimization algorithms have been applied with success to optimal control. The rapid pace of developments in model predictive control has given rise to a host of new problems to which optimization has yet to be applied. Concurrently, developments in optimization, and especially in interior-point methods, have produced a new set of algorithms that may be especially helpful in this context. In this paper, we reexamine the relatively simple problem of control of linear processes subject to quadratic objectives and general linear constraints. We show how new algorithms for quadratic programming can be applied efficiently to this problem. The approach extends to several more general problems in straightforward ways.