Pre-filtering in continuous-time quadratic gain-scheduled and robust state-feedback control

ABSTRACT

We revisit the issue of quadratic gain-scheduled and robust state-feedback control with a focus on linear matrix inequalities widely used in the literature. It has been established that for continuous-time linear parameter-varying systems which depend affinely on the scheduling parameter, gain-scheduled stabilisability implies robust stabilisability. In other words, as far as stabilisation is concerned, using a more complex gain-scheduled controller is not advantageous. The proof of such equivalence is non constructive and, although very general, limited to stabilisability. One contribution of the present paper is to establish constructive proofs in the quadratic case that can be extended to performance optimisation in terms of quadratic $H_2$ and $H_{\mathrm{\infty }}$ norms. One issue investigated in detail is the strategy of using pre-filters to handle parameter-variation in the input matrix. Our results show that said technique, which has been popular since the 1980s, is rarely productive in the sense that solvability of quadratic gain-scheduled control design problems for the original system augmented with an arbitrary pre-filter implies existence of a lower-dimensional quadratic robust controller for the original system, which we construct explicitly via projections.

KEYWORDS:

• Gain scheduling
• linear-parameter-varying systems
• $H_2$ and $H_{\mathrm{\infty }}$ control
• state-feedback

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.