Stabilization of Linear Systems with Structured Perturbations

The problem of stabilization of linear systems with bounded structured uncertainties are considered in this paper. Two notions of stability, denoted quadratic stability (Q-stability) and μ-stability, are considered, and corresponding notions of stabilizability and detectability are defined. In both cases, the output feedback stabilization problem is reduced via a separation argument to two simpler problems: full information (FI) and full control (FC). The set of all stabilizing controllers can be parametrized as a linear fractional transformation (LFT) on a free stable parameter. For Q-stability, stabilizability and detectability can in turn be characterized by Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs), and the FI and FC Q-stabilization problems can be solved using the corresponding LMIs. In the standard one-dimensional case the results in this paper reduce to well-known results on controller parametrization using state-space methods, although the development here relies more heavily on elegant LFT machinery and avoids the need for coprime factorizations

Time-Optimal Path Tracking via Reachability Analysis

Given a geometric path, the Time-Optimal Path Tracking problem consists in finding the control strategy to traverse the path time-optimally while regulating tracking errors. A simple yet effective approach to this problem is to decompose the controller into two components: (i)~a path controller, which modulates the parameterization of the desired path in an online manner, yielding a reference trajectory; and (ii)~a tracking controller, which takes the reference trajectory and outputs joint torques for tracking. However, there is one major difficulty: the path controller might not find any feasible reference trajectory that can be tracked by the tracking controller because of torque bounds. In turn, this results in degraded tracking performances. Here, we propose a new path controller that is guaranteed to find feasible reference trajectories by accounting for possible future perturbations. The main technical tool underlying the proposed controller is Reachability Analysis, a new method for analyzing path parameterization problems. Simulations show that the proposed controller outperforms existing methods.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, ICRA 201

Unified Approach to Convex Robust Distributed Control given Arbitrary Information Structures

We consider the problem of computing optimal linear control policies for linear systems in finite-horizon. The states and the inputs are required to remain inside pre-specified safety sets at all times despite unknown disturbances. In this technical note, we focus on the requirement that the control policy is distributed, in the sense that it can only be based on partial information about the history of the outputs. It is well-known that when a condition denoted as Quadratic Invariance (QI) holds, the optimal distributed control policy can be computed in a tractable way. Our goal is to unify and generalize the class of information structures over which quadratic invariance is equivalent to a test over finitely many binary matrices. The test we propose certifies convexity of the output-feedback distributed control problem in finite-horizon given any arbitrarily defined information structure, including the case of time varying communication networks and forgetting mechanisms. Furthermore, the framework we consider allows for including polytopic constraints on the states and the inputs in a natural way, without affecting convexity

System-level, Input-output and New Parameterizations of Stabilizing Controllers, and Their Numerical Computation

It is known that the set of internally stabilizing controller $\mathcal{C}_{\text{stab}}$ is non-convex, but it admits convex characterizations using certain closed-loop maps: a classical result is the {Youla parameterization}, and two recent notions are the {system-level parameterization} (SLP) and the {input-output parameterization} (IOP). In this paper, we address the existence of new convex parameterizations and discuss potential tradeoffs of each parametrization in different scenarios. Our main contributions are: 1) We first reveal that only four groups of stable closed-loop transfer matrices are equivalent to internal stability: one of them is used in the SLP, another one is used in the IOP, and the other two are new, leading to two new convex parameterizations of $\mathcal{C}_{\text{stab}}$. 2) We then investigate the properties of these parameterizations after imposing the finite impulse response (FIR) approximation, revealing that the IOP has the best ability of approximating $\mathcal{C}_{\text{stab}}$ given FIR constraints. 3) These four parameterizations require no \emph{a priori} doubly-coprime factorization of the plant, but impose a set of equality constraints. However, these equality constraints will never be satisfied exactly in numerical computation. We prove that the IOP is numerically robust for open-loop stable plants, in the sense that small mismatches in the equality constraints do not compromise the closed-loop stability. The SLP is known to enjoy numerical robustness in the state feedback case; here, we show that numerical robustness of the four-block SLP controller requires case-by-case analysis in the general output feedback case.Comment: 20 pages; 5 figures. Added extensions on numerial computation and robustness of closed-loop parameterization

H∞ control of nonlinear systems: a convex characterization

The nonlinear H∞-control problem is considered with an emphasis on developing machinery with promising computational properties. The solutions to H∞-control problems for a class of nonlinear systems are characterized in terms of nonlinear matrix inequalities which result in convex problems. The computational implications for the characterization are discussed