Model Predictive Control of Nonholonomic Mobile Robots Without Stabilizing Constraints and Costs

The problem of steering a nonholonomic mobile robot to a desired position and orientation is considered. In this paper, a model predictive control (MPC) scheme based on tailored nonquadratic stage cost is proposed to fulfill this control task. We rigorously prove asymptotic stability while neither stabilizing constraints nor costs are used. To this end, we first design suitable maneuvers to construct bounds on the value function. Second, these bounds are exploited to determine a prediction horizon length such that the asymptotic stability of the MPC closed loop is guaranteed. Finally, numerical simulations are conducted to explain the necessity of having nonquadratic running costs.