Explicit Model Predictive Control with Quantum Encryption

Abstract

This paper studies quantum-encrypted explicit MPC for constrained discrete-time linear systems in a cloud-based architecture. A finite-horizon quadratic MPC problem is solved offline to obtain a piecewise-affine controller. Shared quantum keys generated from Bell pairs and protected by quantum key distribution are used to encrypt the online control evaluation between the sensor and actuator. Based on this architecture, we develop a lightweight encrypted explicit MPC protocol, prove exact recovery of the plaintext control action, and characterize its computational efficiency. Numerical results demonstrate lower online complexity than classical encrypted MPC, while security is discussed in terms of confidentiality of plant data and control inputs.