Section: New Results

Non-Linear, Sampled-Data And Time-Delay Systems

• Time-delay systems:

  • The problem of delay estimation for a class of nonlinear time-delay systems is considered in [82]. The theory of non-commutative rings is used to analyze the identifiability. Sliding mode technique is utilized in order to estimate the delay showing the possibility to have a local (or global) delay estimation for periodic (or aperiodic) delay signals.

  • In [14] we give sufficient conditions guaranteeing the observability of singular linear systems with commensurable delays affected by unknown inputs appearing in both the state equation and the output equation. These conditions allow for the reconstruction of the entire state vector using past and actual values of the system output. The obtained conditions coincide with known necessary and sufficient conditions of singular linear systems without delays.

  • [67] presents a finite-time observer for linear time-delay systems. In contrast to many observers, which normally estimate the system state in an asymptotic fashion, this observer estimates the exact system state in predetermined finite time. The finite-time observer proposed is achieved by updating the observer state based on actual and pass data of the observer. Simulation results are also presented to illustrate the convergence behavior of the finite-time observer.

  • The backward observability (BO) of a part of the vector of trajectories of the system state is tackled in [57] for a general class of linear time-delay descriptor systems with unknown inputs. By following a recursive algorithm, we present easy testable sufficient conditions ensuring the BO of descriptor time-delay systems.

  • Motivated by the problem of phase-locking in droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids with delays, in [23], the recently developed theory of input-to-state stability (ISS) for multistable systems is extended to the case of multistable systems with delayed dynamics. Sufficient conditions for ISS of delayed systems are presented using Lyapunov-Razumikhin functions. It is shown that ISS multistable systems are robust with respect to delays in a feedback. The derived theory is applied to two examples. First, the ISS property is established for the model of a nonlinear pendulum and delay-dependent robustness conditions are derived. Second, it is shown that, under certain assumptions, the problem of phase-locking analysis in droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids with delays can be reduced to the stability investigation of the nonlinear pendulum. For this case, corresponding delay-dependent conditions for asymptotic phase-locking are given.

  • Causal and non-causal observability are discussed in [68] for nonlinear time- delay systems. By extending the Lie derivative for time-delay systems in the algebraic framework introduced by Xia et al. (2002), we present a canonical form and give sufficient condition in order to deal with causal and non-causal observations of state and unknown inputs of time-delay systems.

  • [83] presents a finite-time observer for linear time-delay systems with commensurate delay. Unlike the existing observers in the literature which converges asymptotically, the proposed observer provides a finite-time estimation. This is realized by using the well-known sliding mode technique. Simulation results are also presented in order to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

• Sampled-Data systems:

  • [104] presents basic concepts and recent research directions about the stability of sampled-data systems with aperiodic sampling. We focus mainly on the stability problem for systems with arbitrary time-varying sampling intervals which has been addressed in several areas of research in Control Theory. Systems with aperiodic sampling can be seen as time-delay systems, hybrid systems, Input/Output interconnections, discrete-time systems with time-varying parameters, etc. The goal of the article is to provide a structural overview of the progress made on the stability analysis problem. Without being exhaustive, which would be neither possible nor useful, we try to bring together results from diverse communities and present them in a unified manner. For each of the existing approaches, the basic concepts, fundamental results, converse stability theorems (when available), and relations with the other approaches are discussed in detail. Results concerning extensions of Lyapunov and frequency domain methods for systems with aperiodic sampling are recalled, as they allow to derive constructive stability conditions. Furthermore, numerical criteria are presented while indicating the sources of conservatism, the problems that remain open and the possible directions of improvement. At last, some emerging research directions, such as the design of stabilizing sampling sequences, are briefly discussed.

  • In [31] we investigate the stability analysis of nonlinear sampled-data systems, which are affine in the input. We assume that a stabilizing controller is designed using the emulation technique. We intend to provide sufficient stability conditions for the resulting sampled-data system. This allows to find an estimate of the upper bound on the asynchronous sampling intervals, for which stability is ensured. The main idea of the paper is to address the stability problem in a new framework inspired by the dissipativity theory. Furthermore, the result is shown to be constructive. Numerically tractable criteria are derived using linear matrix inequality for polytopic systems and using sum of squares technique for the class of polynomial systems.

  • [76] deals with the sampled-data control problem based on state estimation for linear sampled-data systems. An impulsive system approach is proposed based on a vector Lyapunov function method. Observer-based control design conditions are expressed in terms of LMIs. Some examples illustrate the feasibility of the proposed approach.