Abstract

We consider the design of fixed-order (or low-order) linear controllers which meet certain performance and/or robustness specifications. The following three problems are considered; covariance control as a nominal performance problem,𝒬-stabilization as a robust stabilization problem, and robust L∞ control problem as a robust performance problem. All three control problems are converted to a single linear algebra problem of solving a linear matrix inequality (LMI) of the type BGC+(BGC)T+Q<0 for the unknown matrix G. Thus this paper addresses the fixed-order controller design problem in a unified way. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a fixed-order controller which satisfies the design specifications for each problem are derived, and an explicit controller formula is given. In any case, the resulting problem is shown to be a search for a (structured) positive definite matrix X such that X∈𝒞1 and X−1∈𝒞2 where 𝒞1 and 𝒞2 are convex sets defined by LMIs. Computational aspects of the nonconvex LMI problem are discussed.