Antiwindup for stable linear systems with input saturation: an LMI-based synthesis

This paper considers closed-loop quadratic stability and L2 performance properties of linear control systems subject to input saturation. More specifically, these properties are examined within the context of the popular linear antiwindup augmentation paradigm. Linear antiwindup augmentation refers to designing a linear filter to augment a linear control system subject to a local specification, called the "unconstrained closed-loop behavior." Building on known results on H∞ and LPV synthesis, the fixed order linear antiwindup synthesis feasibility problem is cast as a nonconvex matrix optimization problem, which has an attractive system theoretic interpretation: the lower bound on the achievable L2 performance is the maximum of the open and unconstrained closed-loop L2 gains. In the special cases of zero-order (static) and plant-order antiwindup compensation, the feasibility conditions become (convex) linear matrix inequalities. It is shown that, if (and only if) the plant is asymptotically stable, plant-order linear antiwindup compensation is always feasible for large enough L2 gain and that static antiwindup compensation is feasible provided a quasi-common Lyapunov function, between the open-loop and unconstrained closed-loop, exists. Using the solutions to the matrix feasibility problems, the synthesis of the antiwindup augmentation achieving the desired level of L2 performance is then accomplished by solving an additional LMI.