Homogeneous Rational Lyapunov Functions for Performance Analysis of Switched Systems with Arbitrary Switching and Dwell-Time Constraints

This paper addresses the problems of determining the H2 norm and the RMS gain of continuous-time switched linear systems. A novel class of Lyapunov functions is proposed for reaching this goal, called homogeneous rational Lyapunov functions (HRLFs). It is shown that sufficient conditions for establishing upper bounds of the sought performance indexes in the case of arbitrary switching can be given in terms of linear matrix inequality (LMI) feasibility tests by searching for an HRLF of chosen degree. Moreover, it is shown that these conditions are also necessary by searching for an HRLF of degree sufficiently large. It is worth mentioning that necessary and sufficient LMI conditions have not been proposed yet in the literature for the considered problems. Hence, the paper continues by considering the case of switching with dwell time constraints, showing that analogous LMI conditions can be obtained for this case by searching for a family of HRLFs mutually constrained by the dwell time specification. Some numerical examples illustrate the proposed methodology and highlight the advantages with respect to the existing works.