Existence and uniqueness of solutions for a class of piecewise linear dynamical systems (Q1611901)

The paper studies a class of dynamical systems that arises when inputs and outputs of a linear system are connected pairwise by piecewise linear algebraic relations. These relations are not assumed to define inputs in terms of outputs or vice versa; in particular, the relations need not be Lipschitzian. Namely, the system under study is of the form \[ \begin{aligned} \dot x(t)&=Ax(t)+Bu(t),\\ y(t)&=Cx(t)+Du(t), \end{aligned} \] where \(x(t)\in\mathbb R^n\), \(u(t)\in\mathbb R^m\), \(y(t)\in\mathbb R^m\) and \(A\), \(B\), \(C\), and \(D\) are matrices. It is assumed that the variables \(u\) and \(y\) are coupled via piecewise linear characteristics, i.e. for all \(t\in\mathbb R\) \[ \left( \begin{matrix} u_i(t)\\ y_i(t) \end{matrix} \right)\in \mathcal J^i \] where \([\mathcal J^i]_{i=1}^m\) is a given family of \(k\)-piecewise linear characteristics. Sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of solutions of such dynamical systems in the class of piecewise Bohl functions are obtained. Both local and global aspects of the problem are considered. The obtained results are shown to give well-posedness results for several classes of linear systems (complementarity systems, relay systems, systems with saturation). Some questions and open problems arising from the paper's results are posed.