On the Global Stability of Nonlinear Hurwitz Control Systems

Abstract

The problem of designing nonlinear control systems by the algebraic polynomial-matrix method using quasilinear models is considered. The quasilinear models of nonlinear plants are easily created on the basis of their nonlinear equations in the Cauchy form. To create these models only the differentiability of the plants nonlinearities is required. The solution to the design problem of the nonlinear Hurwitz control systems using the algebraic polynomial-matrix method is available if the quasilinear model of the plant is controllable. The design with application of this method consists of creating the quasilinear model of the nonlinear plant, generating several polynomials, composing and solving a system of linear algebraic equations. The theorem about the global stability of the equilibrium of the nonlinear systems, represented in the quasilinear model, is proved by the method of Lyapunov functions. The numerical examples of the design of nonlinear Hurwitz control systems are given. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Note to Practitioners</i> —This article is concerned with the creation of stable nonlinear control systems with nonlinear elements since the linear systems can’t fulfill the quality requirements demanded from modern control systems. Additionally, the known design methods of nonlinear systems, such as the input-state feedback linearization, backstepping, passivity and others, require the transformation of the original nonlinear equations of the plant into some special form. These transformations are often very difficult to find and to execute. A new algebraic polynomial-matrix design method of the nonlinear control systems using the quasilinear models of nonlinear plants is proposed in the article. This method can be applied if the nonlinearities of the plant are differentiable, and the quasilinear model of the plant is controllable. The theorem about global stability of the equilibrium is proved for the systems designed with this approach. The quasilinear models are easily created on the basis of the original equations in the Cauchy form for a given nonlinear plant. The algebraic polynomial-matrix design method is very simple: the quasilinear model is created; several polynomials are calculated with the use of this model and the linear algebraic equations system is composed. The solution of this system allows us to write down the expression which defines the control law as a nonlinear function of the plant’s state variables. This system will be globally or locally stable if the conditions of the theorem or the corollaries, proved in this article, are satisfied. The numerical examples illustrate the application of the suggested approach to the design of nonlinear Hurwitz control systems for the nonlinear plants. The main advantages of this approach: the quasilinear models are created quite easily; the nonlinear control law is found as a solution to the system of linear equations. The results can be applied to the creation of nonlinear control systems of nonlinear plants in many industries: shipbuilding, aircraft construction, automobile construction, agriculture and many others.