Robust Model Predictive Control of Nonlinear Systems: Handling Rate Constraints **Partial financial support by NSERC and McMaster Advanced Control Consortium is gratefully acknowledged.

This work considers the problem of stabilization of nonlinear systems subject to rate constraints on the control inputs and constraints on the state and input variables in the presence of uncertainty. We first handle rate constraints within a soft constraints framework. A new robust predictive controller formulation that minimizes rate constraint violation while guaranteeing stabilization and state and input constraints satisfaction from an explicitly characterized stability region is designed. We then derive conditions that allow for guaranteed satisfaction of hard rate constraints. Subsequently, a predictive controller is designed that ensures rate constraints satisfaction when the required conditions are satisfied, relaxing them otherwise to preserve feasibility and robust stability. The implementation of the proposed predictive controllers is illustrated via a chemical reactor example.