Gain-Scheduled Control of LPV Systems with Structural Constraints

In large-scale dynamic systems, consisting of the interconnection of several sub-systems, the control law must obey a certain distributed structure defined by the information exchange pattern on a communication network. In case the system exhibits parameters which vary over time, the Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) paradigm provides a control-oriented framework for the design of robust or gain-scheduled control laws. Since each subsystem has only access to a partial knowledge of the overall set of parameters, due to the constraint imposed by the communication network, the controller gain must satisfy some structural constraints which increase the complexity of the design problem. This paper proposes a novel approach based on Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs) to deal with the distributed control of large-scale systems described by a LPV dynamics. LMI conditions are established for the design of a gain-scheduled controller ensuring exponential stability of the overall system with a prescribed decay rate, while satisfying the structural constraints imposed by the communication network. A simulation case study is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.