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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Badakis, Giannis, Lazar, Mircea, Toth, Roland
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08903
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author Badakis, Giannis
Lazar, Mircea
Toth, Roland
author_facet Badakis, Giannis
Lazar, Mircea
Toth, Roland
contents This paper presents a computationally efficient approach for Gaussian process model predictive control (GP-MPC), where Gaussian process (GP) regression is used to complement a baseline model of the system dynamics. The proposed method achieves propagation of both the predicted mean and variance, thereby significantly reducing conservativeness compared with existing GP-MPC formulations. The nonlinear GP-MPC problem is reformulated into an exact linear parameter-varying (LPV) structure that preserves the nonlinear prediction dynamics in affine form without introducing further approximation. Moreover, closed-form derivations of moment matching (MM) predictions for sparse GPs are developed, including both mean and variance propagation under uncertain inputs, which improves scalability to larger datasets. This further enables recasting the resulting GP-MPC problem as a sequence of quadratic programs (QPs), which can be solved efficiently. The proposed framework significantly improves runtime efficiency while maintaining prediction accuracy, as demonstrated through simulation and real-world experiments on a Crazyflie 2.1 micro quadcopter.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_08903
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Efficient sparse GP-MPC with accurate mean and variance propagation applied for quadcopter flight control
Badakis, Giannis
Lazar, Mircea
Toth, Roland
Optimization and Control
This paper presents a computationally efficient approach for Gaussian process model predictive control (GP-MPC), where Gaussian process (GP) regression is used to complement a baseline model of the system dynamics. The proposed method achieves propagation of both the predicted mean and variance, thereby significantly reducing conservativeness compared with existing GP-MPC formulations. The nonlinear GP-MPC problem is reformulated into an exact linear parameter-varying (LPV) structure that preserves the nonlinear prediction dynamics in affine form without introducing further approximation. Moreover, closed-form derivations of moment matching (MM) predictions for sparse GPs are developed, including both mean and variance propagation under uncertain inputs, which improves scalability to larger datasets. This further enables recasting the resulting GP-MPC problem as a sequence of quadratic programs (QPs), which can be solved efficiently. The proposed framework significantly improves runtime efficiency while maintaining prediction accuracy, as demonstrated through simulation and real-world experiments on a Crazyflie 2.1 micro quadcopter.
title Efficient sparse GP-MPC with accurate mean and variance propagation applied for quadcopter flight control
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08903