Time-varying homogeneous feedback: Design tools for the exponential stabilization of systems with drift (Q4955089)

This paper is devoted to the exponential stabilization of specific homogeneous affine control systems of the form \[ \dot x= f(x)+ \sum^m_{i=1} g_i(x) u_i.\tag{\(*\)} \] The homogeneity property has been defined with respect to a dilation of the state space. Also, the exponential stability concept employs the dilation. The feedback control laws proposed in the paper are time-dependent and apply to control systems that fail to satisfy the well-known Brockett condition. The main results (theorem 3 and 4) of the paper have a quite technical character and cannot be reproduced precisely in a short review, so we shall restrict to short comments. The first result assumes that there exists a time-dependent periodic feedback stabilizing asymptotically the system \((*)\), and defines a scaling of this feedback that guarantees achieving exponential stabilization. The second result derives an exponentially stabilizing time-depending feedback relying on asymptotic stability of a certain averaged system associated with \((*)\). In the paper the averaging has been confined only to first-order Lie brackets of the control vector fields in \((*)\), although a possibility of generalization has been announced. An important advantage of the averaging-based control law is that associated vector fields of the system \((*)\) are allowed to be non-smooth at the origin, and the designed feedback may have this property, too. Both theorems of the paper have been illustrated with non-trivial examples. Surprisingly to the reviewer, the paper has made no reference to the fundamental work of P. E. Crouch on graded vector spaces and system approximation whose relevance in the context of the paper is evident [see \textit{P. E. Crouch}, SIAM J. Control Optimization 22, 40-54 (1984; Zbl 0537.93040) and Rend. Semin. Mat., Torino, Fasc. Spec. 1-54 (1987; Zbl 0647.93032)].