Jicheng Shi

Loris Di Natale, Yingzhao Lian, Emilio T. Maddalena et al.

This manuscript offers the perspective of experimentalists on a number of modern data-driven techniques: model predictive control relying on Gaussian processes, adaptive data-driven control based on behavioral theory, and deep reinforcement learning. These techniques are compared in terms of data requirements, ease of use, computational burden, and robustness in the context of real-world applications. Our remarks and observations stem from a number of experimental investigations carried out in the field of building control in diverse environments, from lecture halls and apartment spaces to a hospital surgery center. The final goal is to support others in identifying what technique is best suited to tackle their own problems.

Jicheng Shi, Colin N. Jones

This paper considers stochastic linear time-invariant systems subject to constraints on the average number of state-constraint violations over time without knowing the disturbance distribution. We present a novel disturbance-adaptive model predictive control (DAD-MPC) framework, which adjusts the disturbance model based on measured constraint violations. Using a robust invariance method, DAD-MPC ensures recursive feasibility and guarantees asymptotic or robust bounds on average constraint violations. Additionally, the bounds hold even with an inaccurate disturbance model, which allows for data-driven disturbance quantification methods to be used, such as conformal prediction. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces closed-loop cumulative cost compared to state-of-the-art methods across different target violation rates, while satisfying average violation bounds.

Jiarui Yu, Jicheng Shi, Wenjie Xu et al.

Model predictive control (MPC) controller is considered for temperature management in buildings but its performance heavily depends on hyperparameters. Consequently, MPC necessitates meticulous hyperparameter tuning to attain optimal performance under diverse contracts. However, conventional building controller design is an open-loop process without critical hyperparameter optimization, often leading to suboptimal performance due to unexpected environmental disturbances and modeling errors. Furthermore, these hyperparameters are not adapted to different pricing schemes and may lead to non-economic operations. To address these issues, we propose an efficient performance-oriented building MPC controller tuning method based on a cutting-edge efficient constrained Bayesian optimization algorithm, CONFIG, with global optimality guarantees. We demonstrate that this technique can be applied to efficiently deal with real-world DSM program selection problems under customized black-box constraints and objectives. In this study, a simple MPC controller, which offers the advantages of reduced commissioning costs, enhanced computational efficiency, was optimized to perform on a comparable level to a delicately designed and computationally expensive MPC controller. The results also indicate that with an optimized simple MPC, the monthly electricity cost of a household can be reduced by up to 26.90% compared with the cost when controlled by a basic rule-based controller under the same constraints. Then we compared 12 real electricity contracts in Belgium for a household family with customized black-box occupant comfort constraints. The results indicate a monthly electricity bill saving up to 20.18% when the most economic contract is compared with the worst one, which again illustrates the significance of choosing a proper electricity contract.