Systems with structured uncertainty: relations between quadratic and robust stability

The relation between the notions of robust stability and quadratic stability for uncertain systems with structured uncertainty due to both real and complex parameter variations is discussed. Examples are presented to demonstrate that for systems containing at least two uncertain blocks, the notions of robust stability for complex parameter variations and quadratic stability for real parameter variations are not equivalent. A byproduct of these examples is that, for this class of systems, quadratic stability for real perturbations need not imply quadratic stability for complex perturbations. This is in stark contrast with the situation in the case of unstructured uncertainty, for which it is known that quadratic stability for either real or complex perturbations is equivalent to robust stability for complex perturbations, and thus equivalent to a small gain condition on the transfer matrix that the perturbation experiences