Neural adaptive MPC with online metaheuristic tuning for power management in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles

In this paper, we present an advanced control framework for power management applications, named Neural Adaptive Model Predictive Control (NA-MPC), designed to provide an optimal power allocation among multiple energy sources, perform a multi-objective online adaptation of the optimal control policy, and ensure a fast real-time execution with low computational demand. NA-MPC augments general MPC problems with three key features: 1) an online metaheuristic tuning strategy adapts the MPC cost function weights, to attain multiple concurrent control objectives at once; 2) through neural emulation, the MPC control policy is replaced by an equivalent neural MPC controller, exhibiting universal approximation guarantees and ensuring real-time feasibility; 3) a neural black-box MPC prediction model is employed, identified only via noise-corrupted input-output measurements from the plant, which is assumed to be unknown. The general formulation and versatility of NA-MPC make it potentially applicable to several power management scenarios; in this work, we apply NA-MPC to the case study of power management in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEVs), a topic of growing interest within the frame of sustainable transportation, for which novel and efficient strategies are still lacking. The effectiveness of NA-MPC is thoroughly assessed via numerical simulations, demonstrating its capability to optimally attain multiple control objectives concurrently in real time; moreover, NA-MPC consistently outperforms the most prominent state-of-the-art HEV power management strategies.