Stability and robustness of planar switching linear systems

This paper presents a decision algorithm for the analysis of the stability of a class of planar switched linear systems, modeled by hybrid automata. The dynamics in each location of the hybrid automaton is assumed to be linear and asymptotically stable; the guards on the transitions are hyperplanes in the state space. We show that for every pair of an ingoing and an outgoing transition related to a location, the exact gain in the norm of the vector induced by the dynamics in that location can be computed. These exact gains are used in defining a gain automaton which forms the basis of an algorithmic criterion to determine if a planar hybrid automaton is stable or not.