Practical \(L_2\) disturbance attenuation for nonlinear systems (Q5953548)

Consider a nonlinear input-output dynamical system: \[ \dot x=f(x) + k(x)w,\quad y = h(x), \] where \((x, w, y)\in\mathbb R^n\times \mathbb R^q\times\mathbb R^s\), \(f, k, h\) are assumed to be smooth and such that \(f(0) = 0\), \(h(0) = 0\). The authors present a notion of generalized \(L_2\)-gain for this system, where the gain is considered as a function of the state instead of a global constant. This new notion seems to be adequate to characterize the gain properties of nonlinear systems that do not possess a uniform \(L_2\)-gain property, i.e. the \(L_2\)-gain depends on the operating point. A notion of practical \(L_2\)-gain attenuation, which extends the standard definition and parallels (mutatis mutandis) the concepts of practical stability, is also proposed. One of the advantages of this approach is to provide characterizations in terms of solutions to Hamilton-Jacobi inequalities.