Data-Driven Control (DDC) is a methodology that formulates controllers directly from observations without requiring a system identification step. Our work in (Miller & Sznaier, 2022) extended the Quadratic Matrix Inequality (QMI) framework towards data-driven gain-scheduled control of Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) systems.

Stabilizing control of an LPV system given data observations. The left side highlights stabilization of the ground-truth in red, and the blue trajectories are other systems in the data consistency set. The right side samples additional parameter sequences and demonstrates stabilization.

The introduction of input and measurement noise is called the Error-in-Variables (EIV) setting, and adds a bilinearity that results in NP-hard system identification and control problems. We developed a polynomial-optimization based framework to perform stabilizing and robust control of all consistent plants in the EIV setting when all noise processes are L-infinity norm bounded (Miller et al., 2022). The moment-Sum-of-Squares (SOS) hierarchy is used to find a superstabilizing or quadratically stabilizing controller, where each nonnegativity constraint is posed over the set of unknown plants and unknown noise processes. We a used theorem of alternatives is used to eliminate the unknown noise variables and improve computational scalability. This SOS-based framework may be extended towards the control of autoregressive models with input-output data (Miller et al., 2023).

Data-Driven techniques may also be applied to peak estimation. The data-consistency set in (missing reference) is modeled as a parameter-affine differential inclusion for a polytope-bounded uncertainty process.

The left plot charts 100 noisy derivative observations of a 3-state cubic polynomial dynamical system. The right plots a series of trajectories (cyan) compatible with data-consistent systems, as well as an upper bound (red) on the maximal vertical coordinate that any of these systems will obtain.

Relevant Publications:

Journal Articles

LCSS
Data-Driven Gain Scheduling Control of Linear Parameter-Varying Systems using Quadratic Matrix Inequalities

Miller, Jared, and Sznaier, Mario

IEEE Control Systems Letters 2022

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This paper synthesizes a gain-scheduled controller to stabilize all possible Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) plants that are consistent with measured input/state data records. Inspired by prior work in data informativity and LTI stabilization, a set of Quadratic Matrix Inequalities is developed to represent the noise set, the class of consistent LPV plants, and the class of stabilizable plants. The bilinearity between unknown plants and ‘for all’ parameters is avoided by vertex enumeration of the parameter set. Effectiveness and computational tractability of this method is demonstrated on example systems.
@article{miller2022lpvqmi, title = {{Data-Driven Gain Scheduling Control of Linear Parameter-Varying Systems using Quadratic Matrix Inequalities}}, author = {Miller, Jared and Sznaier, Mario}, year = {2022}, abbr = {LCSS}, pdf = {LPVQMI_LCSS.pdf}, eprint = {2209.06251}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, primaryclass = {math.OC}, tag = {ddc}, bibtex_show = {true}, journal = {IEEE Control Systems Letters}, doi = {10.1109/LCSYS.2022.3227182}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9971732}, html = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9971732}, code = {https://github.com/Jarmill/lpv_qmi}, arxiv = {2209.06251}, selected = {true} }

Conference Articles

IFAC
Superstabilizing Control of Discrete-Time ARX Models under Error in Variables

Miller, Jared, Dai, Tianyu, and Sznaier, Mario

In 22nd IFAC World Congress (upcoming) 2023

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This paper applies a polynomial optimization based framework towards the superstabilizing control of an Autoregressive with Exogenous Input (ARX) model given noisy data observations. The recorded input and output values are corrupted with L-infinity bounded noise where the bounds are known. This is an instance of Error in Variables (EIV) in which true internal state of the ARX system remains unknown. The consistency set of ARX models compatible with noisy data has a bilinearity between unknown plant parameters and unknown noise terms. The requirement for a dynamic compensator to superstabilize all consistent plants is expressed using polynomial nonnegativity constraints, and solved using sum-of-squares (SOS) methods in a converging hierarchy of semidefinite programs in increasing size. The computational complexity of this method may be reduced by applying a Theorem of Alternatives to eliminate the noise terms. Effectiveness of this method is demonstrated on control of example ARX models.
@inproceedings{miller2022eivarx, doi = {10.48550/ARXIV.2210.14893}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.14893}, html = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.14893}, author = {Miller, Jared and Dai, Tianyu and Sznaier, Mario}, title = {{Superstabilizing Control of Discrete-Time ARX Models under Error in Variables}}, publisher = {arXiv}, booktitle = {22nd IFAC World Congress (upcoming)}, year = {2023}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, primaryclass = {math.OC}, tag = {ddc}, abbr = {IFAC}, note = {arXiv: 2210.14893}, arxiv = {2210.14893}, selected = {false}, bibtex_show = {true}, code = {https://github.com/Jarmill/eiv_arx} }
ROCOND
Facial Input Decompositions for Robust Peak Estimation under Polyhedral Uncertainty

Miller, Jared, and Sznaier, Mario

In 10th IFAC Symposium on Robust Control Design (ROCOND) 2022

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This work bounds extreme values of state functions for a class of input-affine continuous-time systems that are affected by polyhedral-bounded uncertainty. Instances of these systems may arise in data-driven peak estimation, in which the state function must be bounded for all systems that are consistent with a set of state-derivative data records corrupted under L-infinity bounded noise. Existing occupation measure-based methods form a convergent sequence of outer approximations to the true peak value, given an initial set, by solving a hierarchy of semidefinite programs in increasing size. These techniques scale combinatorially in the number of state variables and uncertain parameters. We present tractable algorithms for peak estimation that scale linearly in the number of faces of the uncertainty-bounding polytope rather than combinatorially in the number of uncertain parameters by leveraging convex duality and a theorem of alternatives (facial decomposition). The sequence of decomposed semidefinite programs will converge to the true peak value under mild assumptions (convergence and smoothness of dynamics).
@inproceedings{miller2022facial_short, title = {{Facial Input Decompositions for Robust Peak Estimation under Polyhedral Uncertainty}}, journal = {IFAC-PapersOnLine}, volume = {55}, number = {25}, pages = {55-60}, year = {2022}, tag = {peakddc}, slides = {ROCOND_Data_Driven_Presentation.pdf}, booktitle = {10th IFAC Symposium on Robust Control Design (ROCOND)}, issn = {2405-8963}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2022.09.323}, url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405896322015750}, html = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405896322015750}, author = {Miller, Jared and Sznaier, Mario}, keywords = {Robust Optimization in Control, Uncertain Systems, Sum-of-Squares, Computational Methods in Control, Safety Certificates}, abbr = {ROCOND}, code = {https://github.com/Jarmill/data_driven_occ}, bibtex_show = {true} }
CDC

Data-Driven Superstabilizing Control of Error-in-Variables Discrete-Time Linear Systems

Miller, Jared, Dai, Tianyu, and Sznaier, Mario

In 61st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) 2022

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This paper proposes a method to find super-stabilizing controllers for discrete-time linear systems that are consistent with a set of corrupted observations. The L-infinity bounded measurement noise introduces a bilinearity between the unknown plant parameters and noise terms. A super-stabilizing controller may be found by solving a feasibility problem involving a set of polynomial nonnegativity constraints in terms of the unknown plant parameters and noise terms. A sequence of sum-of-squares (SOS) programs in rising degree will yield a super-stabilizing controller if such a controller exists. Unfortunately, these SOS programs exhibit very poor scaling as the degree increases. A theorem of alternatives is employed to yield equivalent, convergent (under mild conditions), and more computationally tractable SOS programs.

Preprints

Data-Driven Control of Positive Linear Systems using Linear Programming

Miller, Jared, Dai, Tianyu, Sznaier, Mario, and Shafai, Bahram

Preprint 2023

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This paper presents a linear-programming based algorithm to perform data-driven stabilizing control of linear positive systems. A set of state-input-transition observations is collected up to magnitude-bounded noise. A state feedback controller and dual linear copositive Lyapunov function are created such that the set of all data-consistent plants is contained within the set of all stabilized systems. This containment is certified through the use of the Extended Farkas Lemma and solved via Linear Programming. Sign patterns and sparsity structure for the controller may be imposed using linear constraints. The complexity of this algorithm scales in a polynomial manner with the number of states and inputs. Effectiveness is demonstrated on example systems.
@preprint{miller2023ddcpos, title = {{Data-Driven Control of Positive Linear Systems using Linear Programming}}, author = {Miller, Jared and Dai, Tianyu and Sznaier, Mario and Shafai, Bahram}, year = {2023}, eprint = {2303.12242}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, primaryclass = {math.OC}, bibtex_show = {true}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12242}, arxiv = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12242}, html = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12242}, code = {https://github.com/Jarmill/data_driven_pos}, tag = {ddc} }
Robust Data-Driven Safe Control using Density Functions

Zheng, Jian, Dai, Tianyu, Miller, Jared, and Sznaier, Mario

Preprint 2023

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This paper presents a tractable framework for data-driven synthesis of robustly safe control laws. Given noisy experimental data and some priors about the structure of the system, the goal is to synthesize a state feedback law such that the trajectories of the closed loop system are guaranteed to avoid an unsafe set even in the presence of unknown but bounded disturbances (process noise). The main result of the paper shows that for polynomial dynamics, this problem can be reduced to a tractable convex optimization by combining elements from polynomial optimization and the theorem of alternatives. This optimization provides both a rational control law and a density function safety certificate. These results are illustrated with numerical examples.
@preprint{zheng2023robustsafety, title = {{Robust Data-Driven Safe Control using Density Functions}}, author = {Zheng, Jian and Dai, Tianyu and Miller, Jared and Sznaier, Mario}, year = {2023}, eprint = {2303.09004}, arxiv = {2303.09004}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, primaryclass = {math.OC}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.09004}, html = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.09004}, tag = {ddc}, selected = {false}, bibtex_show = {true}, code = {https://github.com/J-mzz/ddc-safety} }
Quantifying the Safety of Trajectories using Peak-Minimizing Control

Miller, Jared, and Sznaier, Mario

Preprint 2023

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This work quantifies the safety of trajectories of a dynamical system by the perturbation intensity required to render a system unsafe (crash into the unsafe set). Computation of this measure of safety is posed as a peak-minimizing optimal control problem. Convergent lower bounds on the minimal peak value of controller effort are computed using polynomial optimization and the moment-Sum-of-Squares hierarchy. The crash-safety framework is extended towards data-driven safety analysis by measuring safety as the maximum amount of data corruption required to crash into the unsafe set.
@preprint{miller2023crash, title = {{Quantifying the Safety of Trajectories using Peak-Minimizing Control}}, author = {Miller, Jared and Sznaier, Mario}, year = {2023}, eprint = {2303.11896}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, tag = {peakddc}, primaryclass = {math.OC}, bibtex_show = {true}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.11896}, html = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.11896}, code = {https://github.com/Jarmill/crash-safety} }
Analysis and Control of Input-Affine Dynamical Systems using Infinite-Dimensional Robust Counterparts

Miller, Jared, and Sznaier, Mario

Preprint 2023

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Input-affine dynamical systems often arise in control and modeling scenarios, such as the data-driven case when state-derivative observations are recorded under bounded noise. Common tasks in system analysis and control include optimal control, peak estimation, reachable set estimation, and maximum control invariant set estimation. Existing work poses these types of problems as infinite-dimensional linear programs in auxiliary functions with sum-of-squares tightenings. The bottleneck in most of these programs is the Lie derivative nonnegativity constraint posed over the time-state-control set. Decomposition techniques to improve tractability by eliminating the control variables include vertex decompositions (switching), or facial decompositions in the case where the polytopic set is a scaled box. This work extends the box-facial decomposition technique to allow for a robust-counterpart decomposition of semidefinite representable sets (e.g. polytopes, ellipsoids, and projections of spectahedra). These robust counterparts are proven to be equivalent to the original Lie constraint under mild compactness and regularity constraints. Efficacy is demonstrated under peak/distance/reachable set data-driven analysis problems and Region of Attraction maximizing control.
@preprint{miller2023robustcounterpart, title = {Analysis and Control of Input-Affine Dynamical Systems using Infinite-Dimensional Robust Counterparts}, author = {Miller, Jared and Sznaier, Mario}, year = {2023}, eprint = {2112.14838}, url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.14838}, html = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.14838}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, primaryclass = {math.OC}, tag = {peakddc}, bibtex_show = {true}, slides = {SIAM_data_driven.pdf}, code = {https://github.com/Jarmill/data_driven_occ}, selected = {true} }
Data-Driven Stabilizing and Robust Control of Discrete-Time Linear Systems with Error in Variables

Miller, Jared, Dai, Tianyu, and Sznaier, Mario

Preprint 2022

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This work presents a sum-of-squares (SOS) based framework to perform data-driven stabilization and robust control tasks on discrete-time linear systems where the full-state observations are corrupted by L-infinity bounded measurement noise (error in variable setting). Certificates of state-feedback superstability or quadratic stability of all plants in a consistency set are provided by solving a feasibility program formed by polynomial nonnegativity constraints. Under mild compactness and data-collection assumptions, SOS tightenings in rising degree will converge to recover the true superstabilizing controller, with slight conservatism introduced for quadratic stabilizability. The performance of this SOS method is improved through the application of a theorem of alternatives while retaining tightness, in which the unknown noise variables are eliminated from the consistency set description. This SOS feasibility method is extended to provide worst-case-optimal robust controllers under H2 control costs. The consistency set description may be broadened to include cases where the data and process are affected by a combination of L-infinity bounded measurement, process, and input noise. Further generalizations include varying noise sets, non-uniform sampling, and switched systems stabilization.
@preprint{miller2022eiv, title = {Data-Driven Stabilizing and Robust Control of Discrete-Time Linear Systems with Error in Variables}, author = {Miller, Jared and Dai, Tianyu and Sznaier, Mario}, year = {2022}, eprint = {2210.13430}, arxiv = {2210.13430}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, tag = {ddc}, primaryclass = {math.OC}, note = {arXiv: 2210.13430}, bibtex_show = {true}, code = {https://github.com/jarmill/error_in_variables}, pdf = {Noise_in_Variable__Journal_Arxiv.pdf}, selected = {true} }