Robust Data-Driven Receding-Horizon Control for LQR with Input Constraints

Abstract: This letter presents a robust data-driven receding-horizon control framework for the discrete time linear quadratic regulator (LQR) with input constraints. Unlike existing data-driven approaches that design a controller from initial data and apply it unchanged throughout the trajectory, our method exploits all available execution data in a receding-horizon manner, thereby capturing additional information about the unknown system and enabling less conservative performance. Prior data-driven LQR and model predictive control methods largely rely on Willem's fundamental lemma, which requires noise-free data, or use regularization to address disturbances, offering only practical stability guarantees. In contrast, the proposed approach extends semidefinite program formulations for the data-driven LQR to incorporate input constraints and leverages duality to provide formal robust stability guarantees. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.