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This paper deals with the estimation of convergence rate and domain of attraction of control-Lyapunov functions in Lyapunov-based control. This pair of estimation problems has been considered only for input-affine systems with constraints on the input norm. In this paper, we propose a novel optimization framework to address the estimation of convergence rate and domain of attraction. Specifically, we formulate the estimation problems as min–max bilevel programs for the decay rate of the Lyapunov function, where the inner problem can be resolved using Karush–Kuhn–Tucker optimality conditions, and the resulting single-level programs can be transformed into and solved as mixed-integer nonlinear programs. The proposed approach is applicable to systems with input-nonaffinity or more general forms of input constraints under an input-convexity assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we first show that the main results claimed in the paper by Bikas and Rovithakis (2021) involve some errors as the selection conditions for the design parameters are not sufficient to ensure the boundedness of all the closed-loop signals, then we provide the corresponding corrections under the same controller, so that the underlying quantized control problem can be tackled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a standard consensus algorithm under output saturations. In this case, the global consensus cannot be realized due to the existence of stable equilibrium points that do not belong to the consensus manifold. Therefore, this paper investigates necessary and sufficient initial conditions for the achievement of consensus that characterize an exact domain of attraction. Specifically, this paper considers single-integrator agents with both fixed and time-varying undirected graphs. Then, we show that the consensus will be achieved if and only if the average of the initial states is within the minimum saturation level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistently excited nonlinear time-varying systems are considered in this paper. Two new quadratic, time-varying, Lyapunov functions are presented, whose time-varying matrices—solutions to suitable linear time-varying matrix differential equations—are causal (nonanticipating) and, thus, differently from related results in the literature, available at runtime. They allow for directly addressing and successfully achieving further adaptation goals, when uncertain parameters affect the system dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs detectability ideas to decide uniform global asymptotic stability (UGAS) of the trivial solution for a class of switched nonlinear time-varying systems when the trivial solution is uniformly globally stable. Using the notion of limiting behaviors of the state, output, and switching signals, the concept of a limiting zeroing-output solution is introduced. This leads to a definition of weak zero-state detectability (WZSD) that can be used to check UGAS, (uniformly for a set of switched signals). En route to establish this, a number of new stability results are derived. For example, under appropriate conditions, it is feasible to decide UGAS even when the switching signal does not satisfy an averaged dwell-time condition. It is also shown that WZSD of the original switched system can be verified by detectability conditions of much simpler auxiliary systems. Moreover, UGAS can be guaranteed without requiring that in each allowable system (without switching), the trivial solution is attractive. The effectiveness of the proposed concept is illustrated by a few examples including a switched semi-quasi-Z-source inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The explicit reference governor (ERG) is a simple and systematic approach that provides constraint handling capabilities to prestabilized systems. The basic idea behind this approach is to translate state and input constraints into an upper-bound on the value of the Lyapunov function, which is then enforced by suitably manipulating the derivative of the applied reference. When designing the ERG, one of the main challenges is the determination of an upper-bound on the value of the Lyapunov function that ensures constraints satisfaction. This paper proposes a systematic approach for estimating online the optimal upper-bound for systems subject to the intersection of concave constraints. To do this, the Barrier function method is used. The effect of the estimation error caused by the time-varying nature of the auxiliary reference on the constraint satisfaction capability of the ERG is studied analytically. A procedure is proposed to modify the estimated upper-bound to avoid constraints violation in the presence of estimation errors. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated through a simulation study on an overhead gantry crane system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a multi-input driftless bilinear system evolving on the $n$ -dimensional sphere $S^{n}$. We first provide examples drawn from rigid body mechanics that provide the motivation for the control of bilinear systems on $S^{n}$. For the general framework, we establish the global controllability on $S^{n}$ and propose two linear control laws on $S^{n}$ that achieve asymptotic stabilization of an equilibrium point with an almost global domain-of-attraction. Further, the asymptotically stable closed-loop system trajectories are shown to be arcs on the geodesics of $S^{n}$ for a particular choice of the equilibrium point. Next, we propose two linear time-varying control laws to achieve trajectory tracking on $S^{n}$ and show the asymptotic stability of the tracking error. A distributed control is designed for the consensus of multiagent bilinear systems on $S^{n}$ with an undirected tree as the communication graph. The consensus manifold is shown to have an almost global domain of attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the study of both, local and global, uniform asymptotic stability for switched nonlinear time-varying (NLTV) systems through the detectability of output-maps. With this aim, the notion of reduced limiting control systems for switched NLTV systems whose switchings verify time/state-dependent constraints, and the concept of weak zero-state detectability for those reduced limiting systems are introduced. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the (global)uniform asymptotic stability of families of trajectories of the switched system are obtained in terms of this detectability property. These sufficient conditions in conjunction with the existence of multiple weak Lyapunov functions yield a criterion for the (global) uniform asymptotic stability of families of trajectories of the switched system. This criterion can be seen as an extension of the classical Krasovskii-LaSalle theorem. An interesting feature of the results is that no dwell-time assumptions are made. Moreover, they can be used for establishing the global uniform asymptotic stability of the switched NLTV system under arbitrary switchings. The effectiveness of the proposed results is illustrated by means of various interesting examples, including the stability analysis of a semiquasi-Z-source inverter [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stability analysis of nonlinear singular systems, arising from differential algebraic equations, is addressed in this paper, exploiting the fact that it belongs to the class of Positvstellensatz problems. By means of the direct Lyapunov method and a variety of convex descriptor forms, sufficient conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities are developed. Issues concerning proper initialization and simulation are also considered. Illustrative examples are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equilibrium-independent dissipativity (EID) is a recently introduced system property that requires a system to be dissipative with respect to any forced equilibrium configuration. This paper is a detailed examination of EID with quadratic supply rates for a common class of nonlinear control-affine systems. We provide an algebraic characterization of EID for such systems in the spirit of the Hill–Moylan lemma, where the usual stability condition is replaced by an incremental stability condition. Based on this characterization, we state results concerning internal stability, feedback stability, and absolute stability of EID systems. Finally, we study EID for discrete-time systems, providing the relevant definitions and an analogous Hill–Moylan-type characterization. Results for both continuous-time and discrete-time systems are illustrated through examples on physical systems and convex optimization algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, an extension of the super-twisting algorithm for relative degrees $m\geq {}1$ has been proposed. However, as of yet, no Lyapunov functions for this algorithm exist. This paper discusses the construction of Lyapunov functions by means of the sum-of-squares technique for  $m=1$. Sign definiteness of both Lyapunov function and its time derivative is shown in spite of numerically obtained—and hence possibly inexact—sum-of-squares decompositions. By choosing the Lyapunov function to be a positive semidefinite, the finite time attractivity of the system's multiple equilibria is shown. A simple modification of this semidefinite function yields a positive definite Lyapunov function as well. Based on this approach, a set of the algorithm's tuning parameters ensuring finite-time convergence and stability in the presence of bounded uncertainties is proposed. Finally, a generalization of the approach for $m>1$ is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the projected saddle-point dynamics associated to a convex–concave function, which we term saddle function. The dynamics consists of gradient descent of the saddle function in variables corresponding to convexity and (projected) gradient ascent in variables corresponding to concavity. We examine the role that the local and/or global nature of the convexity–concavity properties of the saddle function plays in guaranteeing convergence and robustness of the dynamics. Under the assumption that the saddle function is twice continuously differentiable, we provide a novel characterization of the omega-limit set of the trajectories of this dynamics in terms of the diagonal blocks of the Hessian. Using this characterization, we establish global asymptotic convergence of the dynamics under local strong convexity–concavity of the saddle function. When strong convexity–concavity holds globally, we establish three results. First, we identify a Lyapunov function (that decreases strictly along the trajectory) for the projected saddle-point dynamics when the saddle function corresponds to the Lagrangian of a general constrained convex optimization problem. Second, for the particular case when the saddle function is the Lagrangian of an equality-constrained optimization problem, we show input-to-state stability (ISS) of the saddle-point dynamics by providing an ISS Lyapunov function. Third, we use the latter result to design an opportunistic state-triggered implementation of the dynamics. Various examples illustrate our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses integral input-to-state stability (iISS) for stochastic nonlinear dynamical systems and develops Lyapunov-type criteria. The developments offer an iISS small-gain framework for verifying robustness of interconnected systems with respect to disturbances. The framework not only includes input-to-state stability (ISS) as a special case, but also highlights fundamental differences between the stochastic and deterministic systems. In particular, dealing with nonlinearities in interconnection gives rise to a unique issue of degradation in the presence of stochastic noises. This paper addresses this issue by coping judiciously with the effect of the gradient of Lyapunov functions of subsystems through diffusion fields in composing a Lyapunov function of the entire system. This paper employs two types of robustness notions, and demonstrates that the influence of the stochastic degradation on one notion is considerably different from the influence on the other notion in dealing with interconnected systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we study geometric properties of basins of attraction of monotone systems. Our results are based on a combination of monotone systems theory and spectral operator theory. We exploit the framework of the Koopman operator, which provides a linear infinite-dimensional description of nonlinear dynamical systems and spectral operator-theoretic notions such as eigenvalues and eigenfunctions. The sublevel sets of the dominant eigenfunction form a family of nested forward-invariant sets and the basin of attraction is the largest of these sets. The boundaries of these sets, called isostables, allow studying temporal properties of the system. Our first observation is that the dominant eigenfunction is increasing in every variable in the case of monotone systems. This is a strong geometric property which simplifies the computation of isostables. We also show how variations in basins of attraction can be bounded under parametric uncertainty in the vector field of monotone systems. Finally, we study the properties of the parameter set for which a monotone system is multistable. Our results are illustrated on several systems of two to four dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces the notion of common zeroing-output systems (CZOS) to analyze the stability of switched systems. The concept of CZOS allows one to verify weak zero-state detectability. It characterizes a common behavior of any individual subsystem when the output signal for each subsystem is “approaching” zero. Heuristically speaking, it removes the effect of switching behavior, and thus enables one to analyze stability properties in systems with complex switching signals. With the help of CZOS, the Krasovskii–LaSalle theorem can be extended to switched nonlinear time-varying systems with both arbitrary switching and more general restricted switching cases. For switched nonlinear time-invariant systems, the needed detectability condition is further simplified, leading to several new stability results. Particularly, when a switched linear time-invariant system is considered, it is possible to generate a recursive method, which combines a Krasovskii–LaSalle result and a nested Matrosov result, to find a CZOS if it exists. The power of the proposed CZOS is demonstrated by consensus problems in literature to obtain a stronger convergence result with weaker conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an original interval-based method to compute an outer approximation of all invariant sets (such as limit cycles) of a continuous-time nonlinear dynamic system, which are included inside a prior set of the state space. Contrary to all other existing approaches, our method has the following properties: first, it is guaranteed (a solution cannot be lost); second, it is applicable to a large class of systems without any specific assumption such as the knowledge of a Lyapunov function or any partial linearity; and third, there is no need to integrate the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a solution to the problem of verifying stability of networks consisting of integral input-to-state stable (iISS) subsystems. The iISS small-gain theorem developed recently has been restricted to interconnections of two subsystems. For large-scale systems, stability criteria relying only on gain-type information that were previously developed address only input-to-state stable (ISS) subsystems. To address the stability problem involving iISS subsystems interconnected in general structure, this paper shows how to construct Lyapunov functions of the network by means of a sum of nonlinearly rescaled individual Lyapunov functions of subsystems under an appropriate small-gain condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a generalization of the super-twisting algorithm for perturbed chains of integrators of arbitrary order. This higher order super-twisting (HOST) controller is homogeneous with respect to a family of dilations and is continuous. It is built as a dynamic controller (with respect to the state variable of the chain of integrators) and the convergence analysis is performed by the use of a homogeneous strict Lyapunov function which is explicitly constructed. The effectiveness of the controller is finally illustrated with simulations for a chain of integrators of order four, first pure then perturbed, where we compare the performances of two HOST controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, exponential stabilizability of continuous-time positive switched systems is investigated. For two-dimensional systems, exponential stabilizability by means of a switching control law can be achieved if and only if there exists a Hurwitz convex combination of the (Metzler) system matrices. In the higher dimensional case, it is shown by means of an example that the existence of a Hurwitz convex combination is only sufficient for exponential stabilizability, and that such a combination can be found if and only if there exists a smooth, positively homogeneous and co-positive control Lyapunov function for the system. In the general case, exponential stabilizability ensures the existence of a concave, positively homogeneous and co-positive control Lyapunov function, but this is not always smooth. The results obtained in the first part of the paper are exploited to characterize exponential stabilizability of positive switched systems with delays, and to provide a description of all the “switched equilibrium points” of an affine positive switched system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the stability analysis of a lossless Euler-Bernoulli beam that carries a tip payload which is coupled to a finite-dimensional nonlinear dynamic feedback system. The latter comprises dynamic systems satisfying the nonlinear KYP lemma, which may represent the closed-loop dynamics of subordinate controlled actuators, as well as the interaction with a nonlinear passive environment. Global-in-time wellposedness and asymptotic stability is rigorously proven for the resulting closed-loop partial differential equation–ordinary differential equation (PDE–ODE) system. The analysis is based on semigroup theory for the corresponding first order evolution problem. For the large-time analysis, precompactness of the trajectories is shown by deriving uniform-in-time bounds on the solution and its time derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of state estimation in nonlinear Lagrangian dynamical systems with frictionless unilateral constraints using the position measurement as output. The discontinuous velocity variable in such systems is modeled as a function of bounded variation (so that Zeno phenomenon is not ruled out). Since the derivative of such functions is represented with the Lebesgue-Stieltjes measure, the framework of measure differential inclusions (MDIs) is used to describe the dynamics. A class of estimators is proposed, which also uses the framework of MDIs, and is shown to generate asymptotically converging state estimates. The existence and uniqueness of solutions for the proposed estimators is rigorously proven. The global stability of error dynamics is analyzed using the generalized Lyapunov methods for functions of bounded variation. As particular cases of our estimators, we provide an explicit construction of a full-order observer, and a reduced-order observer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of determining switching rules for affine switched systems such that the system state is driven to a desired point and a guaranteed cost is minimized. The switching rule is determined by solving an LMI problem and global asymptotic stability of the tracking error dynamics is guaranteed even if sliding motions occur on any switching surface of the system. The potential of the results is illustrated on a true refrigeration system, namely a domestic refrigerator, where the purpose is to control the temperature in the fresh food and the freezer compartments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we consider the problem of constructing a finite bisimulation quotient for a discrete-time switched linear system in a bounded subset of its state space. Given a set of observations over polytopic subsets of the state space and a switched linear system with stable subsystems, the proposed algorithm generates the bisimulation quotient in a finite number of steps with the aid of sublevel sets of a polyhedral Lyapunov function. Starting from a sublevel set that includes the origin in its interior, the proposed algorithm iteratively constructs the bisimulation quotient for the region bounded by any larger sublevel set. We show how this bisimulation quotient can be used for synthesis of switching laws and verification with respect to specifications given as syntactically co-safe Linear Temporal Logic formulae over the observed polytopic subsets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Super-twisting algorithm is one of the versions of high-order sliding mode control. The interest to this algorithm is explained by its attractive properties: continuous control input, finite convergence time, disturbance rejection. In this paper, the upper bound of admissible unknown disturbances and low bound of the convergence time are found and shown that both the values can be achieved with any desired accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we consider the class of discrete-time switched systems switching between p autonomous positive subsystems. First, sufficient conditions for testing stability, based on the existence of special classes of common Lyapunov functions, are investigated, and these conditions are mutually related, thus proving that if a linear copositive common Lyapunov function can be found, then a quadratic positive definite common function can be found, too, and this latter, in turn, ensures the existence of a quadratic copositive common function. Secondly, stabilizability is introduced and characterized. It is shown that if these systems are stabilizable, they can be stabilized by means of a periodic switching sequence, which asymptotically drives to zero every positive initial state. Conditions for the existence of state-dependent stabilizing switching laws, based on the values of a copositive (linear/quadratic) Lyapunov function, are investigated and mutually related, too. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]