A novel approach to H ∞ control design for linear neutral time-delay systems

This paper is concerned with the problem of H ∞ control of linear neutral systems with time-varying delay. Firstly, by applying a novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional which is constructed with the idea of delay partitioning approach, appropriate free-weighting matrices, an improved delay-dependent bounded real lemma (BRL) for neutral systems is established. By using the obtained BRL, a delay-dependent sufficient condition for the existence of a state-feedback controller, which ensures asymptotic stability and a prescribed H ∞ performance level of the corresponding closed-loop system, is formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Some numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.