A remark on an example by Teel-Hespanha with applications to cascaded systems

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A system-theoretic framework for privacy preservation in continuous-time multiagent dynamics

In multiagent dynamical systems, privacy protection corresponds to avoid disclosing the initial states of the agents while accomplishing a distributed task. The system-theoretic framework described in this paper for this scope, denoted dynamical privacy, relies on introducing output maps which act as masks, rendering the internal states of an agent indiscernible by the other agents as well as by external agents monitoring all communications. Our output masks are local (i.e., decided independently by each agent), time-varying functions asymptotically converging to the true states. The resulting masked system is also time-varying, and has the original unmasked system as its limit system. When the unmasked system has a globally exponentially stable equilibrium point, it is shown in the paper that the masked system has the same point as a global attractor. It is also shown that existence of equilibrium points in the masked system is not compatible with dynamical privacy. Application of dynamical privacy to popular examples of multiagent dynamics, such as models of social opinions, average consensus and synchronization, is investigated in detail.Comment: 38 pages, 4 figures, extended version of arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.0808

On the robustness analysis of triangular nonlinear systems: iISS and practical stability

International audienceThis note synthesizes recent results obtained by the authors on the stability and robustness analysis of cascaded systems. It focuses on two properties of interest when dealing with perturbed systems, namely integral input-to-state stability and practical stability. We present sufficient conditions for which each of these notions is preserved under cascade interconnection. The obtained conditions are of a structural nature, which makes their use particularly easy in practice

On Input-to-State Stability of Impulsive Stochastic Systems with Time Delays

This paper is concerned with pth moment input-to-state stability (p-ISS) and stochastic input-to-state stability (SISS) of impulsive stochastic systems with time delays. Razumikhin-type theorems ensuring p-ISS/SISS are established for the mentioned systems with external input affecting both the continuous and the discrete dynamics. It is shown that when the impulse-free delayed stochastic dynamics are p-ISS/SISS but the impulses are destabilizing, the p-ISS/SISS property of the impulsive stochastic systems can be preserved if the length of the impulsive interval is large enough. In particular, if the impulse-free delayed stochastic dynamics are p-ISS/SISS and the discrete dynamics are marginally stable for the zero input, the impulsive stochastic system is p-ISS/SISS regardless of how often or how seldom the impulses occur. To overcome the difficulties caused by the coexistence of time delays, impulses, and stochastic effects, Razumikhin techniques and piecewise continuous Lyapunov functions as well as stochastic analysis techniques are involved together. An example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness and advantages of our results

Invariance-like theorems and “lim inf” convergence properties

International audienceSeveral theorems, inspired by the Krasovskii-LaSalle invariance principle, to establish “lim inf” convergence results are presented in a unified framework. These properties are useful to “describe” the oscillatory behavior of the solutions of dynamical systems. The theorems resemble “lim inf” Matrosov and Small-gain theorems and are based on a “lim inf” Barbalat's Lemma. Additional technical assumptions to have “lim” convergence are given: the “lim inf”/“lim” relation is discussed in-depth and the role of some of the assumptions is illustrated by means of examples

Remote control and motion coordination of mobile robots

As robots destined for personal and professional applications advance towards becoming part of our daily lives, the importance and complexity of the control algorithms which regulate them should not be underestimated. This thesis is related to two fields within robotics which are of major importance in this paradigm shift; namely, telerobotics and cooperative robotics. On the one hand, telerobotic systems support remote or dangerous tasks, whereas, on the other hand, the use of cooperative robotic systems supports distributed tasks and has several advantages with respect to the use of single-robot systems. The use of robotic systems in remote tasks implies in many cases the physical separation of the controller and the robot. This separation is advantageous when carrying out a variety of remote or hazardous tasks, but at the same time constitutes one of the main drawbacks of this type of robotic systems. Namely, as information is being relayed from the controller to the robot and back over the communication network, a time-delay unavoidably appears in the overall control loop. Hence, controller designs which guarantee the stability and performance of the robot even in the presence of the aforementioned time-delay become necessary in order to ensure a safe and reliable completion of the assigned tasks. On the other hand, using a group of robots to carry out a certain assignment, as compared to a single robot, provides several advantages such as an increased flexibility and the ability to complete distributed or more complex tasks. In order to successfully complete their collective task, the robots in the group generally need to coordinate their behavior by mutually exchanging information. When this information exchange takes place over a delay-inducing communication network, the consequences of the resulting time-delay must be taken into account. As a result, it is of great importance to design controllers which allow the group of robots to work together and complete their task in spite of the time-delay affecting their information exchange. The two control problems explained previously are addressed in this thesis. Firstly, the control of wheeled mobile robots over a delay-inducing communication network is considered by studying the remote tracking control problem for a unicycle-type mobile robot with communication delays. The most important issue to consider is that the communication delay in the control loop most probably compromises the performance and stability of the robot. In order to tackle this problem, a state estimator with a predictor-like structure is proposed. The state estimator is based on the notion of anticipating synchronization and, when acting in conjunction with a tracking control law, the resulting control strategy stabilizes the system and mitigates the negative effects of the time-delay. By exploiting existing results on nonlinear cascaded systems with time-delay, the local uniform asymptotic stability of the closed-loop tracking error dynamics is guaranteed up to a maximum admissible time-delay. Ultimately, explicit expressions which illustrate the relationship between the allowable time-delay and the control parameters of the robot are provided. Secondly, the coordination of a group of wheeled mobile robots over a delayinducing communication network is considered by studying the remote motion coordination problem for a group of unicycle-type mobile robots with a delayed information exchange between the robots. Specifically, master-slave and mutual motion coordination are considered. A controller design which allows the robots to maintain motion coordination even in the presence of a time-delay is proposed and the ensuing global stability analysis provides expressions which relate the control parameters of the robot and the allowable time-delay. The thesis places equal emphasis on theoretical developments and experimental results. In order to do so, the proposed control strategies are experimentally validated using the Internet as the communication network and multi-robot platforms located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands and Tokyo, Japan. To summarize, this thesis addresses two related control problems. On the one hand, we consider the tracking control of a wheeled mobile robot over a communication network which induces a time-delay. On the other hand, we focus on the motion coordination of a group of these robots under the consideration that the information exchange between the robots takes place over a delay-inducing communication network

Lyapunov techniques for a class of hybrid systems and reset controller syntheses for continuous-time plants

Ce manuscrit présente des résultats de recherche concernant une certaine classe de systèmes hybrides. Les systèmes hybrides peuvent être utilises pour la modélisation de systèmes physiques complexes et hétérogènes dont l évolution dans le temps présente des phénomènes discrets, tels que les commutations des convertisseurs ou les impacts des systèmes mécaniques. De la même manière, la théorie hybride peut être utilisée pour concevoir des contrôleurs hybrides, en général plus performants par rapport aux contrôleurs a temps continu.Dans ce cadre, les résultats de ce manuscrit peuvent être divises en trois parties. D'abord des résultats de stabilité par rapport à un indice de performance de type Hinfini sont présentes pour une classe plutôt large de systèmes hybrides. Ensuite, nous introduisons de nouvelles architectures de contrôleurs hybrides pour les systèmes à temps continu caractérisées par le fait que leur état peut être réinitialisé en fonction de la trajectoire. Enfin, nous présentons une technique de synthèse convexe pour la conception d'un contrôleur hybride multi-objectif. La comparaison avec les résultats classique met en évidence les avantages en termes de performance par rapport aux contrôleurs a temps continu classiques, tout en préservant la propriété de robustesse et la simplicité de conception.Bien que la théorie hybride soit en plein développement, ces travaux généralisent certains résultats existants, en améliorant la simplicité d implémentation des solutions grâce à l'utilisation de la programmation semi-de nie. En plus les architectures de contrôleurs hybrides présentées ont l'avantage de simplifier la généralisation de quelques résultats classiques concernant la synthèse optimale par rapport à des indices de performance communs.This dissertation presents some results on hybrid systems. Hybrid systems can be used to model complex physical and heterogeneous systems whose time evolution experiences discrete phenomena, such as commutations in electronic converters or impacts in mechanical systems. In the meantime the hybrid theory can be used to design hybrid controllers which exhibit better performance than the classical continuous-time controllers.In this context, the results in this dissertation can be divided en three parts. First, some stability results with respect to the Hinfinity performance index are presented for a wide class of hybrid controllers. Second, we introduce new hybrid controller architectures for continuous-time systems, where the state of the hybrid controller can be reinitialized depending on the trajectory of the system. Finally, we present a convex synthesis of a multiobjective hybrid controller. The comparisons with the classical results show the improvements that can be achieved with hybrid controllers, maintaining the property of robustness and simplicity of design.Although the hybrid theory is in full development, this work generalizes some existing results by improving the simplicity of their usage by means of semide nite programming tools. Moreover some hybrid architectures are able to generalize some classic results regarding the optimal synthesis with respect to popular performance indexes.TOULOUSE-ISAE (315552318) / SudocSudocFranceF

On Resilient Control for Secure Connected Vehicles: A Hybrid Systems Approach

According to the Internet of Things Forecast conducted by Ericsson, connected devices will be around 29 billion by 2022. This technological revolution enables the concept of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) that will transform many applications, including power-grid, transportation, smart buildings, and manufacturing. Manufacturers and institutions are relying on technologies related to CPSs to improve the efficiency and performances of their products and services. However, the higher the number of connected devices, the higher the exposure to cybersecurity threats. In the case of CPSs, successful cyber-attacks can potentially hamper the economy and endanger human lives. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to develop and adopt resilient technologies that can complement the existing security tools to make CPSs more resilient to cyber-attacks. By exploiting the intrinsically present physical characteristics of CPSs, this dissertation employs dynamical and control systems theory to improve the CPS resiliency to cyber-attacks. In particular, we consider CPSs as Networked Control Systems (NCSs), which are control systems where plant and controller share sensing and actuating information through networks. This dissertation proposes novel design procedures that maximize the resiliency of NCSs to network imperfections (i.e., sampling, packet dropping, and network delays) and denial of service (DoS) attacks. We model CPSs from a general point of view to generate design procedures that have a vast spectrum of applicability while creating computationally affordable algorithms capable of real-time performances. Indeed, the findings of this research aspire to be easily applied to several CPSs applications, e.g., power grid, transportation systems, and remote surgery. However, this dissertation focuses on applying its theoretical outcomes to connected and automated vehicle (CAV) systems where vehicles are capable of sharing information via a wireless communication network. In the first part of the dissertation, we propose a set of LMI-based constructive Lyapunov-based tools for the analysis of the resiliency of NCSs, and we propose a design approach that maximizes the resiliency. In the second part of the thesis, we deal with the design of DOS-resilient control systems for connected vehicle applications. In particular, we focus on the Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC), which is one of the most popular and promising applications involving CAVs