Stability analysis of switched systems using variational principles: An introduction

  • Authors:
  • Michael Margaliot

  • Affiliations:
  • School of Electrical Engineering-Systems, Tel Aviv University, Israel

  • Venue:
  • Automatica (Journal of IFAC)
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Many natural and artificial systems and processes encompass several modes of operation with a different dynamical behavior in each mode. Switched systems provide a suitable mathematical model for such processes, and their stability analysis is important for both theoretical and practical reasons. We review a specific approach for stability analysis based on using variational principles to characterize the ''most unstable'' solution of the switched system. We also discuss a link between the variational approach and the stability analysis of switched systems using Lie-algebraic considerations. Both approaches require the use of sophisticated tools from many different fields of applied mathematics. The purpose of this paper is to provide an accessible and self-contained review of these topics, emphasizing the intuitive and geometric underlying ideas.