A new approach to LPV gain-scheduling design and implementation

A new approach for design and implementation of stabilizing gain-scheduled controllers is proposed. The scheduling variable is used to parameterize the frozen-time linearized dynamics with respect to all system trajectories. This formulation removes the restriction in traditional gain-scheduling that the initial conditions remain close to an equilibrium manifold. A new approach for LPV controller design which results in practically valid controllers is suggested. Next, a novel gain-scheduled controller implementation is proposed for a general LPV controller structure and is shown to satisfy a local linear equivalence condition at the equilibrium manifold. In addition, the novel controller implementation offers extra degrees of freedom that can be employed to maximize the parameter rate bounds. Stability analysis shows that with a bound on parameter variation rates the nonlinear closed-loop system trajectories remain bounded for initial conditions not restricted to be close to equilibrium.