Qualitative Studies of Nonlinear Hybrid Systems

A hybrid system is a dynamical system that exhibits both continuous and discrete dynamic behavior. Hybrid systems arise in a wide variety of important applications in diverse areas, ranging from biology to computer science to air traffic dynamics. The interaction of continuous- and discrete-time dynamics in a hybrid system often leads to very rich dynamical behavior and phenomena that are not encountered in purely continuous- or discrete-time systems. Investigating the dynamical behavior of hybrid systems is of great theoretical and practical importance. The objectives of this thesis are to develop the qualitative theory of nonlinear hybrid systems with impulses, time-delay, switching modes, and stochastic disturbances, to develop algorithms and perform analysis for hybrid systems with an emphasis on stability and control, and to apply the theory and methods to real-world application problems. Switched nonlinear systems are formulated as a family of nonlinear differential equations, called subsystems, together with a switching signal that selects the continuous dynamics among the subsystems. Uniform stability is studied emphasizing the situation where both stable and unstable subsystems are present. Uniformity of stability refers to both the initial time and a family of switching signals. Stabilization of nonlinear systems via state-dependent switching signal is investigated. Based on assumptions on a convex linear combination of the nonlinear vector fields, a generalized minimal rule is proposed to generate stabilizing switching signals that are well-defined and do not exhibit chattering or Zeno behavior. Impulsive switched systems are hybrid systems exhibiting both impulse and switching effects, and are mathematically formulated as a switched nonlinear system coupled with a sequence of nonlinear difference equations that act on the switched system at discrete times. Impulsive switching signals integrate both impulsive and switching laws that specify when and how impulses and switching occur. Invariance principles can be used to investigate asymptotic stability in the absence of a strict Lyapunov function. An invariance principle is established for impulsive switched systems under weak dwell-time signals. Applications of this invariance principle provide several asymptotic stability criteria. Input-to-state stability notions are formulated in terms of two different measures, which not only unify various stability notions under the stability theory in two measures, but also bridge this theory with the existent input/output theories for nonlinear systems. Input-to-state stability results are obtained for impulsive switched systems under generalized dwell-time signals. Hybrid time-delay systems are hybrid systems with dependence on the past states of the systems. Switched delay systems and impulsive switched systems are special classes of hybrid time-delay systems. Both invariance property and input-to-state stability are extended to cover hybrid time-delay systems. Stochastic hybrid systems are hybrid systems subject to random disturbances, and are formulated using stochastic differential equations. Focused on stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay, a fundamental theory regarding existence and uniqueness of solutions is established. Stabilization schemes for stochastic delay systems using state-dependent switching and stabilizing impulses are proposed, both emphasizing the situation where all the subsystems are unstable. Concerning general stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay, the Razumikhin technique and multiple Lyapunov functions are combined to obtain several Razumikhin-type theorems on both moment and almost sure stability of stochastic hybrid systems with time-delay. Consensus problems in networked multi-agent systems and global convergence of artificial neural networks are related to qualitative studies of hybrid systems in the sense that dynamic switching, impulsive effects, communication time-delays, and random disturbances are ubiquitous in networked systems. Consensus protocols are proposed for reaching consensus among networked agents despite switching network topologies, communication time-delays, and measurement noises. Focused on neural networks with discontinuous neuron activation functions and mixed time-delays, sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of equilibrium and global convergence and stability are derived using both linear matrix inequalities and M-matrix type conditions. Numerical examples and simulations are presented throughout this thesis to illustrate the theoretical results

A hybrid state-space approach to sampled-data feedback control

This paper develops a state-space theory for the study of linear shift-invariant finite-dimensional hybrid dynamical systems. By hybrid systems, we mean an input-output operator relating hybrid signals, that is, signals which consist of two parts: a continuous-time part and a discrete-time part. We first introduce the hybrid state-space model and show the closedness properties under the fundamental operations. We next investigate the standard basic issues associated with this formalism: reachability, observability, and internal stability. We define the notion of H2-norm of the hybrid system and show how to evaluate it. Since the analysis result can be applied to any hybrid system with the proposed hybrid state-space model, we apply the analysis result to the optimal digital control problem for standard four-block configuration with H2-norm performance measure. The solution, with computational algorithm, is derived for the time-delay case.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31483/1/0000405.pd

Projective-anticipating, projective, and projective-lag synchronization of time-delayed chaotic systems on random networks

We study projective-anticipating, projective, and projective-lag synchronization of time-delayed chaotic systems on random networks. We relax some limitations of previous work, where projective-anticipating and projective-lag synchronization can be achieved only on two coupled chaotic systems. In this paper, we can realize projective-anticipating and projective-lag synchronization on complex dynamical networks composed by a large number of interconnected components. At the same time, although previous work studied projective synchronization on complex dynamical networks, the dynamics of the nodes are coupled partially linear chaotic systems. In this paper, the dynamics of the nodes of the complex networks are time-delayed chaotic systems without the limitation of the partial-linearity. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, we suggest a generic method to achieve the projective-anticipating, projective, and projective-lag synchronization of time-delayed chaotic systems on random dynamical networks and find both the existence and sufficient stability conditions. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated and verified by examining specific examples using Ikeda and Mackey-Glass systems on Erdos-Renyi networks.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Time-and event-driven communication process for networked control systems: A survey

Copyright © 2014 Lei Zou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.In recent years, theoretical and practical research topics on networked control systems (NCSs) have gained an increasing interest from many researchers in a variety of disciplines owing to the extensive applications of NCSs in practice. In particular, an urgent need has arisen to understand the effects of communication processes on system performances. Sampling and protocol are two fundamental aspects of a communication process which have attracted a great deal of research attention. Most research focus has been on the analysis and control of dynamical behaviors under certain sampling procedures and communication protocols. In this paper, we aim to survey some recent advances on the analysis and synthesis issues of NCSs with different sampling procedures (time-and event-driven sampling) and protocols (static and dynamic protocols). First, these sampling procedures and protocols are introduced in detail according to their engineering backgrounds as well as dynamic natures. Then, the developments of the stabilization, control, and filtering problems are systematically reviewed and discussed in great detail. Finally, we conclude the paper by outlining future research challenges for analysis and synthesis problems of NCSs with different communication processes.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61329301, 61374127, and 61374010, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

Tools for Stability of Switching Linear Systems: Gain Automata and Delay Compensation.

The topic of this paper is the analysis of stability for a class of switched linear systems, modeled by hybrid automata. In each location of the hybrid automaton the dynamics is assumed to be linear and asymptotically stable; the guards on the transitions are hyperplanes in the state space. For each location an estimate is made of the gain via a Lyapunov function for the dynamics in that location, given a pair of ingoing and outgoing transitions. It is shown how to obtain the best possible estimate by optimizing the Lyapunov function. The estimated gains are used in defining a so-called gain automaton that forms the basis of an algorithmic criterion for the stability of the hybrid automaton. The associated gain automaton provides a systematic tool to detect potential sources of instability as well as an indication on to how to stabilize the hybrid systems by requiring appropriate delays for specific transitions