Real-Time Single-Iteration Model Predictive Control for Wave Energy Converters

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel real-time algorithm for controlling wave energy converters (WECs). We begin with the economic model predictive control (MPC) problem formulation and apply a novel, first-order optimization algorithm inspired by recently developed control-based algorithms for constrained optimization to define the controller dynamics according to the single-iteration MPC approach. We theoretically analyse the convergence of the employed algorithm and the computational complexity of the obtained controller. Results from simulations using a benchmark WEC system indicate that the proposed approach significantly outperforms standard MPC, thanks to the inherent ability to handle faster sampling rates.