An exploration of the Razumikhin stability theorem with applications in stabilization of delay systems

Abstract

In this paper, we establish a new evolution property of Lyapunov functions that satisfy the Razumikhin Stability Theorem conditions. The derived property is shown to be a valid alternative criterion to prove the asymptotic stability of a delay system without calculating the derivative of the Lyapunov function, and it is especially useful in solving stabilization problems for time delay systems when the delay is unknown. As an example application of this derived property, we investigate the stabilization of continuous-time linear systems with an unknown time-varying delay, by proposing a switched low gain feedback control technique that utilizes the derived property. Existing literature on stabilization of continuous time delay systems all require some knowledge, such as an upper bound, of the delay. In this work, by proposing a switched low gain feedback control law utilizing the derived property, we are able to achieve asymptotic stabilization of the system without any knowledge of the delay. Furthermore, the proposed switched low gain feedback law also significantly improves the closed-loop system performance in terms of overshoot and convergence speed, in comparison with the traditional fixed gain low gain feedback design. Simulation study verifies the theoretical results.