Decentralized robust control for nonlinear large-scale systems with similarity

In this paper, robust control for a class of nonlinear large-scale systems possessing similar subsystems is considered. The unmatched uncertainties considered may appear not only in the isolated subsystems but also in the interconnections. The only information required on the uncertainties is their bounding functions. By exploiting the similar structure of the large-scale system, two kinds of discontinuous nonlinear decentralized holographic-structure controllers (DHSCs), which are easily designed compared with general nonlinear controllers, are proposed to asymptotically stabilize the system. It is shown that the analysis and synthesis for nonlinear large-scale systems may be simplified using the similar structure. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the methodology. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.