On the LPV Control Design and its Applications to Some Classes of Dynamical Systems

In this chapter, a control design approach based on linear parametervarying (LPV) systems, which can be exploited to solve several problems typically encountered in control engineering, is presented. By means of recent techniques based on Youla–Kucera parametrization, it is shown how it is possible not only to design and optimize stabilizing controllers, but also to exploit the structure of the Youla–Kucera parametrized controller to face and solve side problems, including: (a) dealing with nonlinearities; (b) taking into account control input constraints; (c) performing controller commutation or online adaptation, e.g., in the presence of faults; and (d) dealing with delays in the system. The control scheme is observerbased, namely a prestabilizing observer-based precompensator is applied. Consequently, a Youla–Kucera parameter is applied to produce a supplementary input ignition, which is a function of the residual value (the difference between the output and the estimated output). Based on the fact that any stable operator which maps the residual to the supplementary input preserves stability, several additional features can be added to the compensator, without compromising the loop stability.