Time-discretization of nonlinear systems with time delayed output via Taylor series

An output time delay always exists in practical systems. Analysis of the delay phenomenon in a continuous-time domain is sophisticated. It is appropriate to obtain its corresponding discrete-time model for implementation via a digital computer. A new method for the discretization of nonlinear systems using Taylor series expansion and the zero-order hold assumption is proposed in this paper. This method is applied to the sampled-data representation of a nonlinear system with a constant output time-delay. In particular, the effect of the time-discretization method on key properties of nonlinear control systems, such as equilibrium properties and asymptotic stability, is examined. In addition, ‘hybrid’ discretization schemes resulting from a combination of the ‘scaling and squaring’ technique with the Taylor method are also proposed, especially under conditions of very low sampling rates. A performance of the proposed method is evaluated using two nonlinear systems with time-delay output.