LMI-based robust control of uncertain discrete-time piecewise affine systems

The main contribution of this paper is to present stability synthesis results for discrete-time piecewise affine (PWA) systems with polytopic time-varying uncertainties and for discrete-time PWA systems with norm-bounded uncertainties respectively. The basic idea of the proposed approaches is to construct piecewise-quadratic (PWQ) Lyapunov functions to guarantee the stability of the closed-loop systems. The partition information of the PWA systems is taken into account and each polytopic operating region is outer approximated by an ellipsoid, then sufficient conditions for the robust stabilization are derived and expressed as a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Two examples are given to illustrate the proposed theoretical results.     

Piecewise-affine Lyapunov functions for discrete-time linear systems with saturating controls

This paper is concerned with piecewise-affine (PWA) functions as Lyapunov function candidates for stability analysis of time-invariant discrete-time linear systems with saturating closed-loop control inputs. Using a PWA model of saturating closed-loop system, new necessary and sufficient conditions for a PWA function be a Lyapunov function are presented. Based on linear programming formulation of these conditions, an effective algorithm is proposed for construction of such Lyapunov functions for estimation of the region of local asymptotic stability. Compared to piecewise-linear functions, like Minkowski functions, PWA functions are more adequate to capture the dynamical effects of saturation nonlinearities, giving strictly less conservative results. The complexity of the proposed approach is polynomial in state dimension and exponential in saturating control dimension, being hence appropriate for problems with large state dimension but with few saturating inputs.     

An improved LMI-based approach for stability of piecewise affine time-delay systems with uncertainty

The stability problem for uncertain piecewise affine (PWA) time-delay systems is investigated in this article. It is assumed that there exists a known constant time delay in the system and the uncertainly is norm-bounded. Sufficient conditions for the stability of nominal systems and the stability of systems subject to uncertainty are derived using the Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional with a triple integration term. This approach handles switching based on the delayed states (in addition to the states) for a PWA time-delay system, considers structured as well as unstructured uncertainty and reduces the conservativeness of previous approaches. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by comparing with the existing methods through numerical examples.     

Stability analysis of piecewise-affine systems using controlled invariant sets

This paper presents new stability conditions for closed-loop piecewise-affine (PWA) systems. The result is based on controlled invariant sets for PWA systems, which are defined by extending the notion of semi-ellipsoidal invariant sets for constrained linear systems reported in previous research. The paper shows that by proper use of the control input, concatenations of semi-ellipsoidal sets can be made invariant for the trajectories of PWA systems. Furthermore, based on these controlled invariant sets, the paper presents a result for stability of a closed-loop PWA system which is less conservative than existing approaches in the literature. In this result, it is shown that a PWA system is stable inside the intersection of any level set for a local Lyapunov function and the design set where the function is defined, provided the flow points inwards at the boundaries of the intersection. This result is less conservative than previous approaches and it enables the designer to have an estimation of a much larger region of exponential stability then it would be possible using previous results. A numerical example is presented, in which it is made clear by comparison with previous approaches that the estimated region of stability can be made significantly larger using the new stability conditions developed in this paper.     

Stability and stabilization of piecewise‐affine slab systems subject to Wiener process noise

The main contribution of this paper is to propose a convex formulation of sufficient conditions for both stability analysis and synthesis of stabilizing controllers for stochastic piecewise affine (PWA) systems with multiplicative noise. One of the main difficulties in PWA systems is the fact that the affine terms in the dynamics make it extremely difficult to formulate the synthesis problem as a convex optimization or even convex feasibility program. The presence of multiplicative noise modeled as a Wiener process adds an additional level of difficulty to the analysis and synthesis procedures. Sufficient conditions for stability of stochastic PWA slab systems in the mean square sense are developed first using a stochastic globally quadratic Lyapunov function. Second, PWA state feedback controllers are designed such that the closed‐loop system is stochastically exponentially mean square stable. The conditions for both stability and stabilization are formulated as LMIs, which can then be solved efficiently using currently available software packages. A numerical example shows the effectiveness of the approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A unified dissipativity approach for stability analysis of piecewise smooth systems

The main objective of this paper is to present a unified dissipativity approach for stability analysis of piecewise smooth (PWS) systems with continuous and discontinuous vector fields. The Filippov definition is considered for the solution of these systems. Using the concept of generalized gradients for nonsmooth functions, sufficient conditions for the stability of a PWS system are formulated based on Lyapunov theory. The importance of the proposed approach is that it does not need any a-priori information about attractive sliding modes on switching surfaces, which is in general difficult to obtain. A section on application of the main results to piecewise affine (PWA) systems followed by a section with extensive examples clearly show the usefulness of the proposed unified methodology. In particular, we present an example with a stable sliding mode where the proposed method works and previously suggested methods fail.     

Stabilizing low complexity feedback control of constrained piecewise affine systems

Piecewise affine (PWA) systems are powerful models for describing both non-linear and hybrid systems. One of the key problems in controlling these systems is the inherent computational complexity of controller synthesis and analysis, especially if constraints on states and inputs are present. In addition, few results are available which address the issue of computing stabilizing controllers for PWA systems without placing constraints on the location of the origin.This paper first introduces a method to obtain stability guarantees for receding horizon control of discrete-time PWA systems. Based on this result, two algorithms which provide low complexity state feedback controllers are introduced. Specifically, we demonstrate how multi-parametric programming can be used to obtain minimum-time controllers, i.e., controllers which drive the state into a pre-specified target set in minimum time. In a second segment, we show how controllers of even lower complexity can be obtained by separately dealing with constraint satisfaction and stability properties. To this end, we introduce a method to compute PWA Lyapunov functions for discrete-time PWA systems via linear programming. Finally, we report results of an extensive case study which justify our claims of complexity reduction.     

A sum of squares approach to backstepping controller synthesis for piecewise affine and polynomial systems

This paper develops a backstepping controller synthesis methodology for piecewise polynomial (PWP) systems in strict form. The main contribution of the paper is to formulate sufficient conditions for controller design for PWP systems in strict form as a sum of squares feasibility problem under the assumption that an initial control Lyapunov function exists to start the iterative backstepping procedure. This problem can then be translated into a convex SDP problem and solved by available software packages. The controller synthesis problem for PWP systems in strict feedback form is divided into two cases. The first case consists of the construction of a sum of squares polynomial control Lyapunov function for PWP systems with discontinuous vector fields. The second case addresses the construction of a PWP control Lyapunov function for PWP systems with continuous vector fields. One major advantage of the proposed method is the fact that it can handle systems with discontinuous vector fields and sliding modes. The new synthesis method is applied to several numerical examples. One of these examples offers the first convex optimization solution to piecewise affine (PWA) control of a benchmark circuit system addressed before in the literature using non‐convex PWA control solutions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stability of uncertain piecewise affine systems with time delay: delay-dependent Lyapunov approach

This article addresses the problem of robust stability of piecewise affine (PWA) uncertain systems with unknown time-varying delay in the state. It is assumed that the uncertainty is norm bounded and that upper bounds on the state delay and its rate of change are available. A set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) is derived providing sufficient conditions for the stability of the system. These conditions depend on the upper bound of the delay. The main contributions of the article are as follows. First, new delay-dependent LMI conditions are derived for the stability of PWA time-delay systems. Second, the stability conditions are extended to the case of uncertain PWA time delay systems. Numerical examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the approach.     

Stabilizing Model Predictive Control of Hybrid Systems

In this note, we investigate the stability of hybrid systems in closed-loop with model predictive controllers (MPC). A priori sufficient conditions for Lyapunov asymptotic stability and exponential stability are derived in the terminal cost and constraint set fashion, while allowing for discontinuous system dynamics and discontinuous MPC value functions. For constrained piecewise affine (PWA) systems as prediction models, we present novel techniques for computing a terminal cost and a terminal constraint set that satisfy the developed stabilization conditions. For quadratic MPC costs, these conditions translate into a linear matrix inequality while, for MPC costs based on 1, infin-norms, they are obtained as norm inequalities. New ways for calculating low complexity piecewise polyhedral positively invariant sets for PWA systems are also presented. An example illustrates the developed theory     

Lagrange stability and boundedness of discrete event systems

Recently it has been shown that the conventional notions of stability in the sense of Lyapunov and asymptotic stability can be used to characterize the stability properties of a class of logical discrete event systems (DES). Moreover, it has been shown that stability analysis via the choice of appropriate Lyapunov functions can be used for DES and can be applied to several DES applications including manufacturing systems and computer networks (Passino et al. 1994, Burgess and Passino 1994). In this paper we extend the conventional notions and analysis of uniform boundedness, uniform ultimate boundedness, practical stability, finite time stability, and Lagrange stability so that they apply to the class of logical DES that can be defined on a metric space. Within this stability-theoretic framework we show that the standard Petri net-theoretic notions of boundedness are special cases of Lagrange stability and uniform boundedness. In addition we show that the Petri ent-theoretic approach to boundedness analysis is actually a Lyapunov approach in that the net-theoretic analysis actually produces an appropriate Lyapunov function. Moreover, via the Lyapunov approach we provide a sufficient condition for the uniform ultimate boundedness of General Petri nets. To illustrate the Petri net results, we study the boundedness properties of a rate synchronization network for manufacturing systems. In addition, we provide a detailed analysis of the Lagrange stability of a single-machine manufacturing system that uses a priority-based part servicing policy.     

On convergence properties of piecewise affine systems

In this paper convergence properties of piecewise affine (PWA) systems are studied. In general, a system is called convergent if all its solutions converge to some bounded globally asymptotically stable steady-state solution. The notions of exponential, uniform and quadratic convergence are introduced and studied. It is shown that for non-linear systems with discontinuous right-hand sides, quadratic convergence, i.e., convergence with a quadratic Lyapunov function, implies exponential convergence. For PWA systems with continuous right-hand sides it is shown that quadratic convergence is equivalent to the existence of a common quadratic Lyapunov function for the linear parts of the system dynamics in every mode. For discontinuous bimodal PWA systems it is proved that quadratic convergence is equivalent to the requirements that the system has some special structure and that certain passivity-like condition is satisfied. For a general multimodal PWA system these conditions become sufficient for quadratic convergence. An example illustrating the application of the obtained results to a mechanical system with a one-sided restoring characteristic, which is equivalent to an electric circuit with a switching capacitor, is provided. The obtained results facilitate bifurcation analysis of PWA systems excited by periodic inputs, substantiate numerical methods for computing the corresponding periodic responses and help in controller design for PWA systems.     

带参数摄动的时延分段仿射系统事件触发控制

针对带有参数摄动以及状态时延的网络化分段仿射系统,提出了基于周期事件触发机制的鲁棒控制器设计方法,引入周期事件触发机制来减少通讯网络中信号的传输次数从而降低网络带宽占用。通过构建分段Lyapunov函数,结合李雅普诺夫稳定性定理,将系统的控制器设计问题转换为求线性矩阵不等式可行解问题,实现周期事件触发机制与鲁棒控制器的协同设计。仿真结果说明了该方法的有效性。     

Stability of sampled-data piecewise affine systems: A time-delay approach

This paper addresses the stability analysis of sampled-data piecewise-affine (PWA) systems consisting of a continuous-time plant in feedback connection with a discrete-time emulation of a continuous-time state feedback controller. The sampled-data system is first considered as a continuous-time system with a variable time delay. Conditions under which the trajectories of the sampled-data closed-loop system will converge to an attracting invariant set are then presented. It is also shown that when the sampling period converges to zero, these conditions coincide with sufficient conditions for non-fragility of the stabilizing continuous-time PWA state feedback controller. The results are successfully applied to a helicopter example.     

Input-to-state stability and interconnections of discontinuous dynamical systems

In this paper we will extend the input-to-state stability (ISS) framework to continuous-time discontinuous dynamical systems (DDS) adopting piecewise smooth ISS Lyapunov functions. The main motivation for investigating piecewise smooth ISS Lyapunov functions is the success of piecewise smooth Lyapunov functions in the stability analysis of hybrid systems. This paper proposes an extension of the well-known Filippov’s solution concept, that is appropriate for ‘open’ systems so as to allow interconnections of DDS. It is proven that the existence of a piecewise smooth ISS Lyapunov function for a DDS implies ISS. In addition, a (small gain) ISS interconnection theorem is derived for two DDS that both admit a piecewise smooth ISS Lyapunov function. This result is constructive in the sense that an explicit ISS Lyapunov function for the interconnected system is given. It is shown how these results can be applied to construct piecewise quadratic ISS Lyapunov functions for piecewise linear systems (including sliding motions) via linear matrix inequalities.     

H∞ model predictive control for constrained discrete‐time piecewise affine systems

This paper investigates stability analysis for piecewise affine (PWA) systems and specifically contributes a new robust model predictive control strategy for PWA systems in the presence of constraints on the states and inputs and with l₂ or norm‐bounded disturbances. The proposed controller is based on piecewise quadratic Lyapunov functions. The problem of minimization of the cost function for model predictive control design is changed to minimization of the worst case of the cost function. Then, this objective is reduced to minimization of a supremum of the cost function subject to a terminal inequality by considering the induced l₂‐norm. Finally, the predictive controller design problem is turned into a linear matrix inequality feasibility exercise with constraints on the input signal and state variables. It is shown that the closed‐loop system is asymptotically stable with guaranteed robust performance. The validity of the proposed method is verified through 3 well‐known examples of PWA systems. Simulation results are provided to show good convergence properties along with capability of the proposed controller to reject disturbances.     

Robust stability and stabilizing controller design of fuzzy systems with discrete and distributed delays

In this paper, we consider delay-dependent stability conditions of Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy systems with discrete and distributed delays. Although many kinds of stability conditions for fuzzy systems with discrete delays have already been obtained, almost no stability condition for fuzzy systems with distributed delays has appeared in the literature. This is also true in case of the robust stability for uncertain fuzzy systems with distributed delays. Here we employ a generalized Lyapunov functional to obtain delay-dependent stability conditions of fuzzy systems with discrete and distributed delays. We introduce some free weighting matrices to such a Lyapunov functional in order to reduce the conservatism in stability conditions. These techniques lead to generalized and less conservative stability conditions. We also consider the robust stability of fuzzy time-delay systems with uncertain parameters. Applying the same techniques made on the stability conditions, we obtain delay-dependent sufficient conditions for the robust stability of uncertain fuzzy systems with discrete and distributed delays. Moreover, we consider the state feedback stabilization. Based on stability and robust stability conditions, we obtain conditions for the state feedback controller to stabilize the fuzzy time-delay systems. Finally, we give two examples to illustrate our results. Delay-dependent stability conditions obtained here are shown to guarantee a wide stability region.     

On formalism and stability of switched systems

In this paper,we formulate a uniform mathematical framework for studying switched systems with piecewise linear partitioned state space and state dependent switching.Based on known results from the the...     

Growth conditions for exponential stability of time-varying perturbed systems

In this paper, we derive some sufficient conditions for practical uniform exponential stability of time-varying perturbed systems based on Lyapunov techniques, whose dynamics are in general unbounded in time, in the sense that the solutions are uniform stable and converge to a small neighbourhood of the origin. Under quite general assumptions, we first present a new converse stability theorem for a large class of time-varying systems, which will be used to prove certain stability properties of nonlinear systems with perturbation. Therefore, a new Lyapunov function is presented that guarantees practical uniform exponential stability of perturbed systems. Furthermore, some illustrative examples are presented.     

Average dwell time based stability analysis for nonautonomous continuous‐time switched systems

Inspired by the idea of multiple Lyapunov functions and the average dwell time, we address the stability analysis of nonautonomous continuous‐time switched systems. First, we investigate nonautonomous continuous‐time switched nonlinear systems and successively propose sufficient conditions for their (uniform) stability, global (uniform) asymptotic stability, and global (uniform) exponential stability, in which an indefinite scalar function is utilized to release the nonincreasing requirements of the classical multiple Lyapunov functions. Afterwards, by using multiple Lyapunov functions of quadratic form, we obtain the corresponding sufficient conditions for (uniform) stability, global (uniform) asymptotic stability, and global exponential stability of nonautonomous switched linear systems. Finally, we consider the computation issue of our current results for a special class of nonautonomous switched systems (ie, rational nonautonomous switched systems), associated with two illustrative examples.