Compositional finite-time stability analysis of nonlinear systems

This paper, investigates finite-time stability and finite-time boundedness for nonlinear systems with polynomial vector fields. Finite-time stability requires the states of the system to remain a given bounded set in a finite-time interval and finite-time boundedness considers the same problem for the system but with bounded disturbance. Sufficient conditions for finite-time stability and finite-time boundedness of nonlinear systems as well as a computational method based on sum of squares programming to check the conditions are given. The problem of finite-time stability for a system that consists of an interconnection of subsystems is also considered and we show how to decompose the problem into subproblems for each subsystem with coupling constraints. A solution to the problem using sum of squares programming and dual decomposition is presented. The method is demonstrated through some examples.