Convergence of Stochastic Nonlinear Systems and Implications for Stochastic Model-Predictive Control

The stability of stochastic model-predictive control (MPC) subject to additive disturbances is often demonstrated in the literature by constructing Lyapunov-like inequalities that ensure closed-loop performance bounds and boundedness of the state, but tight ultimate bounds for the state and nonconservative performance bounds are typically not determined. In this article, we use an input-to-state stability property to find conditions that imply convergence with probability 1 of a disturbed nonlinear system to a minimal robust positively invariant set. We discuss implications for the convergence of the state and control laws of stochastic MPC formulations, and we prove convergence results for several existing stochastic MPC formulations for linear and nonlinear systems.