Patent ID: 7328074

Claim:
A method for controlling a multivariable system including the steps of: a) receiving a plurality of sensor signals indicating current conditions of the system, which are sampled; b) receiving a plurality of commands; c) determining a desired dynamic response of the system based upon the commands and the sensor signals; d) in each of a plurality of time steps, formulating a problem of controlling the system to achieve the desired dynamic response as a solution to a quadratic programming problem while observing a plurality of constraints; e) solving the quadratic programming problem in each time step using an iterative algorithm which searches for an optimal active set of the plurality of constraints that are binding at an optimized solution to the quadratic programming problem by dropping at least one of the plurality of constraints that is not binding at the optimized solution; f) in each subsequent time step of the plurality of time steps, initializing a search for the optimal active set with the optimal active set of a prior time step of the plurality of time steps; and g) effecting the desired dynamic response on the system based upon said step e).