Lyapunov stability for piecewise affine systems via cone-copositivity

Cone-copositive piecewise quadratic Lyapunov functions (PWQ-LFs) for the stability analysis of continuous-time piecewise affine (PWA) systems are proposed. The state space is assumed to be partitioned into a finite number of convex, possibly unbounded, polyhedra. Preliminary conditions on PWQ functions for their sign in the polyhedra and continuity over the common boundaries are provided. The sign of each quadratic function is studied by means of cone-constrained matrix inequalities which are translated into linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) via cone-copositivity. The continuity is guaranteed by adding equality constraints over the polyhedra intersections. An asymptotic stability result for PWA systems is then obtained by finding a continuous PWQ-LF through the solution of a set of constrained LMIs. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is shown by analyzing an opinion dynamics model and two saturating control systems

Stability of piecewise affine systems through discontinuous piecewise quadratic Lyapunov functions

State-dependent switched systems characterized by piecewise affine (PWA) dynamics in a polyhedral partition of the state space are considered. Sufficient conditions on the vectors fields such that the solution crosses the common boundaries of the polyhedra are expressed in terms of quadratic inequalities constrained to the polyhedra intersections. A piece-wise quadratic (PWQ) function, not necessarily continuous, is proposed as a candidate Lyapunov function (LF). The sign conditions and the negative jumps at the boundaries are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) via cone-copositivity. A sufficient condition for the asymptotic stability of the PWA system is then obtained by finding a PWQ-LF through the solution of a set LMIs. Numerical results with a conewise linear system and an opinion dynamics model show the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Practical consensus in bounded confidence opinion dynamics

Abstract Opinion dynamics expressed by the bounded confidence discrete-time heterogeneous Hegselmann–Krause model is considered. A policy for the adaptation of the agents confidence thresholds based on heterophily, maximum number of neighbors and non-influencing similarity interval is proposed. The policy leads to the introduction of the concepts of practical clustering and practical consensus. Several properties of the agents dynamic behaviors are proved by exploiting the roles of the agents having at each time-step the maximum and the minimum opinions. The convergence in finite time to (a maximum number of) practical clusters and, for sufficiently large threshold bounds, the convergence to a practical consensus are proved. Sufficient conditions for reaching a practical consensus around a stubborn are derived too. Numerical simulations verify the theoretical results

Asymptotic stability of piecewise affine systems with Filippov solutions via discontinuous piecewise Lyapunov functions

Asymptotic stability of continuous-time piecewise affine systems defined over a polyhedral partition of the state space, with possible discontinuous vector field on the boundaries, is considered. In the first part of the paper the feasible Filippov solution concept is introduced by characterizing single-mode Caratheodory, sliding mode and forward Zeno behaviors. Then, a global asymptotic stability result through a (possibly discontinuous) piecewise Lyapunov function is presented. The sufficient conditions are based on pointwise classifications of the trajectories which allow the identification of crossing, unreachable and Caratheodory boundaries. It is shown that the sign and jump conditions of the stability theorem can be expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities by particularizing to piecewise quadratic Lyapunov functions and using the cone-copositivity approach. Several examples illustrate the theoretical arguments and the effectiveness of the stability result

A smooth model for periodically switched descriptor systems

Switched descriptor systems characterized by a repetitive finite sequence of modes can exhibit state discontinuities at the switching time instants. The amplitudes of these discontinuities depend on the consistency projectors of the modes. A switched ordinary differential equations model whose continuous state evolution approximates the state of the original system is proposed. Sufficient conditions based on linear matrix inequalities on the modes projectors ensure that the approximation error is of linear order of the switching period. The theoretical findings are applied to a switched capacitor circuit and numerical results illustrate the practical usefulness of the proposed model