Network-based H∞ output tracking control

This paper is concerned with the problem of H∞ output tracking for network-based control systems. The physical plant and the controller are, respectively, in continuous time and discrete time. By using a sampled-data approach, a new model based on the updating instants of the holder is formulated, and a linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based procedure is proposed for designing state-feedback controllers, which guarantee that the output of the closed-loop networked control system tracks the output of a given reference model well in the H∞ sense. Both network-induced delays and data packet dropouts have been taken into consideration in the controller design. The network-induced delays are assumed to have both an upper bound and a lower bound, which is more general than those used in the literature. The introduction of the lower bound is shown to be advantageous for reducing conservatism. Moreover, the controller design method is further extended to more general cases, where the system matrices of the physical plant contain parameter uncertainties, represented in either polytopic or norm-bounded frameworks. Finally, an illustrative example is presented to show the usefulness and effectiveness of the proposed H∞ output tracking design.