Optimal discrete-time control for nonlinear cascade systems (Q5942200)

The authors present an optimality-based framework for designing controllers for discrete-time nonlinear cascade systems: \[ x(k+1)=F(x(k), u(k)),\quad x(0)=x_0,\quad k\in\mathbb N, \] where \(x(k)\in\mathcal D\subset\mathbb R^n\) is the state vector, \(\mathcal D\) is an open set with \(0\in\mathcal D\), \(u(k)\in\mathcal C\subset\mathbb R^m\) is the control input, \(\mathcal C\) is an arbitrary set with \(0\in \mathcal C\), and \(F:\mathcal D\times\mathcal C\to\mathbb R^n\) satisfies \(F(0,0)=0\). Using a nonlinear-non-quadratic optimal control framework, a family of globally stabilizing backstepping-type controllers parametrized by the minimized cost functional is developed. This is accomplished by constructing optimal controllers such that the control Lyapunov function is a solution to the steady-state Bellman equation for the control system and thus guaranteeing both stability and optimality. The results are specialized to linear and nonlinear block backstepping in which the linear and nonlinear input subsystems are strictly feedback positive real and strictly feedback passive, respectively.