Weight Certificates for Convex Multi-Objective MPC: Geometric Characterization, $\ell^1$ Construction, and $\ell^2$ Foreclosure

Abstract

Automated-driving rulebooks rank rule violations lexicographically, and model predictive control enforces that ranking either exactly, through $L{+}1$ sequential programs per tick, or approximately, through a weighted sum tuned by the separation heuristic $w_1\gg w_2\gg\cdots\gg w_L$. We show the heuristic answers the wrong question. For a convex priority-ordered program, a weighted sum reproduces the lexicographic optimum precisely when its weight, augmented by a unit performance coefficient, supports the upper image of the achievement map at the lexicographic point; the admissible weights form the unit-performance slice of an outward normal cone. Under hinge penalties this slice is a polyhedron obtained by projecting a scaled-KKT system, and a linear program returns an interior weight with a certified margin; under squared-hinge penalties no finite weight is exact whenever the limiting multiplier is nonzero, with violation along the local minimizer branch decaying as $O(1/w)$. Calibrated on held-out logs, the resulting weights have near-equal tier components in nine of eleven calibration-eligible scenario classes and roughly double legal-tier event precision against a matched heuristic weight in closed-loop nuPlan experiments on a 25-rule rulebook. The certificate is, however, pointwise: no single weight is valid across the sampled ticks of an episode, the median lifetime is one sampling interval (zero subsequent ticks at the native rate), and persistence tracks active-set stability. These findings motivate monitored weighted solves with selective cascade fallback, although the compliance-pattern monitor detects only a subset of measured lapses.