Jürgen Pannek

Rolf Findeisen, Lars Grüne, Jürgen Pannek et al.

Control of systems where the information between the controller, actuator, and sensor can be lost or delayed can be challenging with respect to stability and performance. One way to overcome the resulting problems is the use of prediction based compensation schemes. Instead of a single input, a sequence of (predicted) future controls is submitted and implemented at the actuator. If suitable, so-called prediction consistent compensation and control schemes, such as certain predictive control approaches, are used, stability of the closed loop in the presence of delays and packet losses can be guaranteed. In this paper, we show that control schemes employing prediction based delay compensation approaches do posses inherent robustness properties. Specifically, if the nominal closed loop system without delay compensation is ISS with respect to perturbation and measurement errors, then the closed loop system employing prediction based delay compensation techniques is robustly stable. We analyze the influence of the prediction horizon on the robustness gains and illustrate the results in simulation.

Jürgen Pannek, Karl Worthmann

In order to guarantee stability, known results for MPC without additional terminal costs or endpoint constraints often require rather large prediction horizons. Still, stable behavior of closed loop solutions can often be observed even for shorter horizons. Here, we make use of the recent observation that stability can be guaranteed for smaller prediction horizons via Lyapunov arguments if more than only the first control is implemented. Since such a procedure may be harmful in terms of robustness, we derive conditions which allow to increase the rate at which state measurements are used for feedback while maintaining stability and desired performance specifications. Our main contribution consists in developing two algorithms based on the deduced conditions and a corresponding stability theorem which ensures asymptotic stability for the MPC closed loop for significantly shorter prediction horizons.

Jürgen Pannek

We consider a distributed non cooperative control setting in which systems are interconnected via state constraints. Each of these systems is governed by an agent which is responsible for exchanging information with its neighbours and computing a feedback law using a nonlinear model predictive controller to avoid violations of constraints. For this setting we present an algorithm which generates a parallelizable hierarchy among the systems. Moreover, we show both feasibility and stability of the closed loop using only abstract properties of this algorithm. To this end, we utilize a trajectory based stability result which we extend to the distributed setting.

Johannes Michael, Kurt Chudej, Jürgen Pannek

Capturing disused satellites in orbit and their controlled reentry is the aim of the DEOS space mission. Satellites that ran out of fuel or got damaged pose a threat to working projects in orbit. Additionally, the reentry of such objects endangers the population as the place of impact cannot be controlled anymore. This paper demonstrates the modelling of a rendezvous szenario between a controlled service satellite and an uncontrolled target. The situation is modelled via first order ordinary differental equations where a stable target is considered. In order to prevent a collision of the two spacecrafts and to ensure both satellites are docked at the end of the maneuver, additional state constraints, box contraints for the control and a time dependent rendezvous condition for the final time are added. The problem is formulated as an optimal control problem with Bolza type cost functional and solved using a full discretization approach in AMPL/IpOpt. Last, simulation results for capturing a tumbling satellite are given.

Lars Grüne, Jürgen Pannek, Karl Worthmann

For networked systems, the control law is typically subject to network flaws such as delays and packet dropouts. Hence, the time in between updates of the control law varies unexpectedly. Here, we present a stability theorem for nonlinear model predictive control with varying control horizon in a continuous time setting without stabilizing terminal constraints or costs. It turns out that stability can be concluded under the same conditions as for a (short) fixed control horizon.

Thomas Jahn, Jürgen Pannek

Recently, suboptimality estimates for model predictive controllers (MPC) have been derived for the case without additional stabilizing endpoint constraints or a Lyapunov function type endpoint weight. The proposed methods yield a posteriori and a priori estimates of the degree of suboptimality with respect to the infinite horizon optimal control and can be evaluated at runtime of the MPC algorithm. Our aim is to design automatic adaptation strategies of the optimization horizon in order to guarantee stability and a predefined degree of suboptimality for the closed loop solution. Here, we present a stability proof for an arbitrary adaptation scheme and state a simple shortening and prolongation strategy which can be used for adapting the optimization horizon.

Jürgen Pannek, Marcus von Lossow

We propose a new model predictive control (MPC) approach which is completely based on an observer for the state system. For this, we show semiglobally practically asymptotic stability of the closed loop for an abstract observer and illustrate our results for a numerical example.

Jürgen Pannek

We propose adaptation strategies to modify the standard constrained model predictive controller scheme in order to guarantee a certain lower bound on the degree of suboptimality. Within this analysis, the length of the optimization horizon is the parameter we wish to adapt. We develop and prove several shortening and prolongation strategies which also allow for an effective implementation. Moreover, extensions of stability results and suboptimality estimates to model predictive controllers with varying optimization horizon are shown.

Bertram Fuchs, Mehdi Ejtehadi, Ana Cisnal et al.

Autonomic Dysreflexia (AD) is a potentially life-threatening condition characterized by sudden, severe blood pressure (BP) spikes in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Early, accurate detection is essential to prevent cardiovascular complications, yet current monitoring methods are either invasive or rely on subjective symptom reporting, limiting applicability in daily file. This study presents a non-invasive, explainable machine learning framework for detecting AD using multimodal wearable sensors. Data were collected from 27 individuals with chronic SCI during urodynamic studies, including electrocardiography (ECG), photoplethysmography (PPG), bioimpedance (BioZ), temperature, respiratory rate (RR), and heart rate (HR), across three commercial devices. Objective AD labels were derived from synchronized cuff-based BP measurements. Following signal preprocessing and feature extraction, BorutaSHAP was used for robust feature selection, and SHAP values for explainability. We trained modality- and device-specific weak learners and aggregated them using a stacked ensemble meta-model. Cross-validation was stratified by participants to ensure generalizability. HR- and ECG-derived features were identified as the most informative, particularly those capturing rhythm morphology and variability. The Nearest Centroid ensemble yielded the highest performance (Macro F1 = 0.77+/-0.03), significantly outperforming baseline models. Among modalities, HR achieved the highest area under the curve (AUC = 0.93), followed by ECG (0.88) and PPG (0.86). RR and temperature features contributed less to overall accuracy, consistent with missing data and low specificity. The model proved robust to sensor dropout and aligned well with clinical AD events. These results represent an important step toward personalized, real-time monitoring for individuals with SCI.