A robust and adaptive MPC formulation for Gaussian process models

The paper introduces a robust and adaptive model predictive control framework for uncertain nonlinear systems with bounded disturbances and unmodeled nonlinearities, leveraging Gaussian Processes to learn dynamics from noisy measurements. It derives robust predictions for GP models using contraction metrics, integrating them into the MPC formulation to ensure recursive feasibility, robust constraint satisfaction, and convergence to a reference state with high probability. A numerical example involving a planar quadrotor experiencing challenging ground effects demonstrates significant performance gains from the robust prediction method and online learning.