Patent US 9,983,554

A method controls iteratively the operation of the machine with control inputs determined using the model of the machine based on an optimization of a cost function subject to constraints on the control inputs. A current iteration of the method includes determining a current state of the machine after the controlling with a previous control input determined for a previous iteration by optimizing a previous cost function using a previous model of the machine and determining a current model of the machine to reduce a difference between the current state and a state estimated using the previous model of the machine. The cost function is updated during the current iteration based on a difference between the previous model and the current model to produce a current cost function. A current control input for the controlling at the current iteration is determined using the current model and the current cost function.