An approach to \(H_ \infty\) control of a class of nonlinear systems (Q674949)

This paper approaches the problem of \(H_\infty\) control of nonlinear systems by modelling them as nominally-linear systems with time-varying, nonlinear uncertainties. The specific modelling approach is to first aggregate all the locally linear models of the nonlinear system into a global dynamic model and then defining a nominal model. This results in the so-called heterogeneous model whose structure can be exploited to design robust controllers for the system. The controller design method presented uses state feedback derived from quadratic stability theory. The method is studied for the disturbance attentuation problem and a number of necessary and sufficient conditions for stability are given. The method is also illustrated with an example.