On the analysis of nonlinear nilpotent switched systems using the Hall–Sussmann system

We consider an open problem on the stability of nonlinear nilpotent switched systems posed by Daniel Liberzon. Partial solutions to this problem were obtained as corollaries of global nice reachability results for nilpotent control systems. The global structure is crucial in establishing stability. We show that a nice reachability analysis may be reduced to the reachability analysis of a specific canonical system, the nilpotent Hall–Sussmann system. Furthermore, local nice reachability properties for this specific system imply global nice reachability for general nilpotent systems. We derive several new results revealing the elegant Lie-algebraic structure of the nilpotent Hall–Sussmann system.     

Root-mean-square gains of switched linear systems: A variational approach

We consider the problem of computing the root-mean-square (RMS) gain of switched linear systems. We develop a new approach which is based on an attempt to characterize the “worst-case” switching law (WCSL), that is, the switching law that yields the maximal possible gain. Our main result provides a sufficient condition guaranteeing that the WCSL can be characterized explicitly using the differential Riccati equations (DREs) corresponding to the linear subsystems. This condition automatically holds for first-order SISO systems, so we obtain a complete solution to the RMS gain problem in this case.     

Absolute stability of third-order systems: A numerical algorithm

The problem of absolute stability is one of the oldest open problems in the theory of control. Even for the particular case of second-order systems a complete solution was presented only very recently. For third-order systems, the most general theoretical results were obtained by Barabanov. He derived an implicit characterization of the “most destabilizing” nonlinearity using a variational approach. In this paper, we show that his approach yields a simple and efficient numerical scheme for solving the problem in the case of third-order systems. This allows the determination of the critical value where stability is lost in a tractable and accurate fashion. This value is important in many practical applications and we believe that it can also be used to develop a deeper theoretical understanding of this interesting problem.