Output feedback control of nonlinear systems under unreliable communication links via T-S fuzzy models

This paper investigates the problem of robust H_∞ output feedback control for a class of nonlinear systems under unreliable communication links. The nonlinear plant is represented by a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) uncertain fuzzy model. The communication links between the plant and controller are assumed to be imperfect, that is, data packet dropouts occur intermittently, which is often the case in a network environment. Stochastic variables satisfying the Bernoulli random binary distribution are adopted to characterize the data missing phenomenon. Attention is focused on the design of a piecewise static output feedback controller such that the closed-loop system is stochastically stable with a guaranteed H_∞ performance. Based on a piecewise Lyapunnov function combined with some novel convexifying techniques, the developed theoretical results are in the form of linear matrix inequalities. Finally, a simulation example is also provided to illustrate the effectiveness and less conservatism of the proposed approaches. © 2010 IEEE.