Automatica 42 (2006) 145 150

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Brief paper

Control of a class of pendulum-like systems with Lagrange stability

Jinzhi Wang , Zhisheng Duan, Lin Huang
State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Received 6 July 2004; received in revised form 4 July 2005; accepted 27 August 2005

Abstract
In this paper, the control problem of linear perturbed systems is investigated. Some strategies of controller design guaranteeing the closedloop systems with property of pendulum-like and Lagrange stability are proposed. The given method is applied to the system of synchronous
single-phase motor with pulsing vibrating moment.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Linear perturbed systems; Multiple equilibria; Lagrange stability; Linear matrix inequality

1. Introduction
The stability of Lures system which is composed of linear
block and feedback nonlinearity contains two cases. One is the
absolute stability theory for investigation of global stability of
the stationary point, formulated by Lurie and coworkers in the
1940s, which has been well-studied. The other is for investigation of stability of equilibria set, that is, the global properties of
solutions such as Lagrange stability, dichotomy and gradientlike property (Leonov, Ponomarenko, & Sminova, 1996). The
equilibria set of the system may be nite or innite. Every
type of equilibria set corresponds to a certain type of nonlinear function. The pendulum-like systems are special class of
nonlinear systems with periodic nonlinearity and innite equilibria as well as specic characteristic of solution. They cover
a wide class of systems in engineering, mechanics and power
systems such as synchronous machine, phase-locked loops and
so on. The global properties of solutions for pendulum-like
systems were established and the frequency-domain inequality
conditions ensuring the systems with types of global properties
were provided (Leonov et al., 1996). We note that most results
This paper was not presented at any IFAC meeting. This paper was
recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Dragan
Nesic under the direction of Editor Hassan Khalil. This work is supported
by National Science Foundation of China under Grants 60334030, 10472001,
60204007, 10272001.
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jinzhiw@pku.edu.cn (J. Wang).

0005-1098/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.automatica.2005.08.014

above on the pendulum-like systems are focused on analysis

of global properties. Recently, the problem of controller design
for a class of pendulum-like systems guaranteeing dichotomy
and gradient-like property of the closed-loop systems was investigated (Jinzhi, Lin, & Zhisheng, 2004).
The boundedness of solutions for systems which is called
Lagrange stability (Leonov et al., 1996; Rouche & Mawhin,
1973; Yoshizawa, 1966) is a basic and nature requirement. On
one hand, divergence of solutions is undesirable in some practical systems. On the other hand, Lagrange stability is a necessary condition that every solution of system converges to some
equilibrium. This convergence can be achieved if the system is
Lagrange stable and dichotomous, i.e., every bounded solution
is convergent. In the framework of absolute stability the boundedness of trajectories was established by Arcak et al. that the
linear block must be relative degree one or two and minimum
phase, and the nonlinearity is required to grow faster than linear, that is, to be stiffening (Arcak, Larsen, & Kokotovic, 2002).
In Arcak and Teel (2002) the boundedness of the systems with
relative degree one in feedback with a stiffening nonlinearity
was proven with a positive real condition on the zero dynamics,
which relaxed the earlier results in Arcak et al. (2002).
Note that many practical systems such as synchronous singlephase motor with pulsing vibrating moment and phase-locked
loop with a band amplier (Leonov et al., 1996; Morary, 1970)
are pendulum-like systems and often contain several parameters with clear physical meaning. The pendulum-like property
of this kind of system is part of the physical plant which must

J. Wang et al. / Automatica 42 (2006) 145 150

be preserved. In order to make some pendulum-like systems

without Lagrange stability have this global property, or some
pendulum-like systems have property of Lagrange stability for
larger regions of parameters, some kind of control needs to be
added such that the closed-loop systems achieve Lagrange stability and preserve the pendulum-like property. For this purpose
we consider a class of Lures control systems that can also be
considered as linear perturbed systems. The particularity is that
the linear block contains zero eigenvalue and nonlinearity is
periodic and satises sector condition. When there is no control, that is, u = 0, the systems are pendulum-like but without
Lagrange stability. We study controller design for this kind of
Lures control systems to realize Lagrange stability and at the
same time to preserve the physical and technical phenomena of
the pendulum-like systems. The problem of controller design is
transformed into the extended strictly positive real control problem which is formulated as LMI problem with spectral radius
condition. It is non-convex problem much like output feedback
H control problem with low order controller. But the method
given in Ghaoui and Niculescu (2000) can be used to deal with
the problem. From the view of control the design method given
in this paper is feasible and very useful for some systems and
the obtained results are important not only in theory but also
in applications.
The boundedness of solutions considered in this paper differs
from that of Arcak et al. (2002) and Arcak and Teel (2002)
which are on analysis problem of Lures systems and nonlinear
feedback function only depends on the states of systems. But
the systems studied in this paper are with multiple equilibria
and nonlinear function depends on not only the states but also
the time t. And the problem studied is about controller design.
2. Preliminaries
Consider ordinary differential equation
x = f (t, x) (f : R+ R n R n ),

(1)

where f : R+ R n R n is continuous and locally Lipschitz

continuous in the second argument. Suppose that every solution x(t, t0 , x0 ) of (1) with x(t0 , t0 , x0 ) = x

0 , t0
0 and x0
R n may be continued to [t0 , +). Let
:={ m
j =1 kj dj |kj Z,
1 j m}, where dj R n are supposed to be linearly independent (mn).
Denition 1 (Leonov et al., 1996). We say that (1) is pendulumlike with respect to
if for any solution x(t, t0 , x0 ) of (1) we
have
x(t, t0 , x0 + d) = x(t, t0 , x0 ) + d
for all t
t0 and for all d
.
It was shown that system (1) is pendulum-like with respect
to
if and only if f (t, x + d) = f (t, x) for all t
0, x R n
and d
(Leonov et al., 1996). It is clear that if x(t) = xeq is
a solution of (1) then x(t) = xeq + d (d
) is also a solution
of (1). So the equilibria set of (1) is either empty or innite.

Denition 2. If all the solutions of (1) are bounded we say that

the system is Lagrange stable.
Remark 1. Lagrange stability is a basic global property although in many cases it is not sufcient and it is often required
that each solution converges to some equilibrium. However,
this convergence can be ensured if the system is Lagrange stable and satises dichotomy, that is, every bounded solution is
convergent. The dichotomy of the system can also be tested by
the frequency-domain condition or equivalent LMI condition
(Jinzhi et al., 2004; Leonov et al., 1996).
Consider a feedback system:
x = Ax + b,

 = cx,

 = (t, ),

(2)

where A R nn is a constant real matrix, det A = 0, b

R n1 and cT R n1 are real vectors and  : R+ R R
is continuous and locally Lipschitz continuous in the second
argument,  belongs to the sector M[1 , 2 ], i.e.
1 

(t, )
2


(3)

and there exists a  > 0, such that

(t,  + ) = (t, ),

t R+ ,  R,

(4)

where 1 < 0, 2 > 0 are two nite numbers. Suppose that

P (s) = c(A sI )1 b is non-degenerate, i.e., (A, b) is controllable and (A, c) is observable.
Remark 2. It has been shown that system (2) is a pendulumlike system with respect to
= {j d, j Z} where d = v/cv
and v is a nonzero eigenvector of A corresponding with its
zero eigenvalue (Leonov et al., 1996). In the communication
theory such a system is called phase-controlled (Shakhgildyan
& Belyustina, 1975).
Lemma 1 (Leonov et al., 1996). Suppose that there exists a
number  > 0 such that the following conditions for system
(2)(4) are fullled:
(i) The matrix A + I has n 1 eigenvalues with negative
real parts.
(ii)
1
1
1
2
1
1 2 + (1 + 2 ) Re P (i ) + |P (i )| 0
(5)

for  R.
Then system (2)(4) is Lagrange stable.
For system (2), since det A = 0, P (s) can be rewritten as
P (s) =

1
1
G(s) = (c0 (sI A0 )1 b0 + d),
s
s

(6)

where A0 R (n1)(n1) , b0 R (n1)1 , c0 R 1(n1) . The

transfer function P (s) to be non-degenerate is equivalent to the

J. Wang et al. / Automatica 42 (2006) 145 150

P(s)

(t,)
Fig. 1. The pendulum-like system (9) with u = 0.

(t,)

following assumptions:

Fig. 2. The closed-loop feedback system.

(A1 ) (A0 , b0 ) is controllable, (A0 , c0 ) is observable.

(A2 ) s = 0 is not the zero of G(s).
Lemma 2. The frequency-domain inequality (5) holds if and
only if
Re H (i)
0

for all  R,

(7)

where

 ( 1 )(1/(s ))G(s )
H (s) = 2 + 2 2
.
1
1 1 + 2 (1/(s ))G(s )

(8)

Consider a linear perturbed system:

(9)

where x is the system state and u is control input. A, b, c and

 satisfy the same conditions as Section 2. When there is no
control, i.e., u = 0, the system is a pendulum-like system which
can be described by Fig. 1, where P (s) = c(sI A)1 b is
the transfer function from  to  which is non-degenerate.
Since some pendulum-like systems described by Fig. 1 may
not be Lagrange stable, it is necessary to add some efcient
control such that the systems are Lagrange stable and at the
same time preserve the property of pendulum-like systems (see
Denition 1). For this purpose we consider synthesis problem
of (9), that is, to design a linear controller K(s):
K:

xc = Ac xc + Bc ,
u = Cc xc Dc ,

(10)

such that the closed-loop feedback system described by Fig. 2

is pendulum-like and Lagrange stable, where K(s) = Cc (sI
Ac )1 Bc + Dc .
4. Design of controller for linear perturbed systems
The transfer function from  to  in the closed-loop feedback system dened by Fig. 2 is
Pcl (s) = (1 + P (s)K(s))1 P (s).

K(s) = ck Ak (sI Ak )1 bk + ck bk .

(12)

Since det A = 0, we can write P (s) as (6). By (11), the transfer

function Pcl (s) can be rewritten as
1
Pcl (s) = (1 + G(s)K1 (s))1 G(s).
s

3. Problem formulation

x = Ax + bu + b(t, ),
 = cx,

Let designed controller K(s) contain a differential part, that

is, K(s) = sK 1 (s) where K1 (s) = ck (sI Ak )1 bk where
Ak R nk nk , bk R nk 1 , ck R 1nk . Thus, K(s) can be
expressed as

(11)

(13)

It is obvious that the closed-loop system described by Fig.

2 is still a pendulum-like feedback system if Pcl (s) is
non-degenerate, which can be satised if Gcl (s) = (1 +
G(s)K1 (s))1 G(s) is non-degenerate and zero is not the pole
of 1 + G(s)K1 (s) by assumptions (A1 ) and (A2 ).
Since 1+G(s)K1 (s) and Gcl (s)=(1+G(s)K1 (s))1 G(s)
have state space realizations:

where


A0
b0 ck
Ag =
,
bk c0 Ak dbk ck
cg = [ c0 dck ] .


bg =


b0
,
dbk
(14)

Thus det A0  = 0 and det Ak  = 0 can ensure that zero is not

the pole of 1 + G(s)K1 (s).
By Lemmas 1 and 2 we have:
Theorem 1. Suppose that assumptions (A1 ), (A2 ) hold and
det A0  = 0. If there exists a transfer function K1 (s) such that
det Ak  = 0, (Ag , bg ) is controllable and (Ag , cg ) is observable, I + Ag is Hurwitz and Re Hs (i)
0 for any  R,
then the closed-loop feedback system dened by Fig. 2 is

J. Wang et al. / Automatica 42 (2006) 145 150

pendulum-like and Lagrange stable, where K(s) is dened by

(12) and

 ( 1 )(1/(s ))Gcl (s )
Hs (s) = 2 + 2 2
.
1
1 1 + 2 (1/(s ))Gcl (s )

B2 = b0 ,

(i) det Ak  = 0, (Ag , bg ) is controllable and (Ag , cg ) is observable,

(ii) d 2 p22 (22 /1 )[2 (1 + 2 )d]p2 + 2 > 0,
(iii) The transfer function matrix
(16)

is extended strictly positive real (ESPR) (Weiqian, Khargonekar,

& Shim, 1994) and I +Ag is stable, then the closed-loop feedback system dened by Fig. 2 is pendulum-like and Lagrange
stable, where
 
p2
Br = bg [ 2 1 ] , Cr =
cg ,
0


( + 2 d)p2 21 ( + p2 d)
,
(17)
Dr = 1
2
2 ( + p2 d)

1

where  = (2 /1 )(2 1 ) and Ag , bg , cg are dened by (14).

Proof. From (iii) and in terms of Lemma 2.3 (Weiqian et al.,
1994), there exists a positive denite matrix P1 such that


P1 (I + Ag ) + (I + Ag )T P1
CrT P1 Br
< 0, (18)
Cr BrT P1
(Dr + DrT )
which is equivalent to


P As + ATs P csT P bs
22
< 0,
cs bsT P
1

Ap = I + A0 ,

(15)

Theorem 2. Suppose that assumptions (A1 ), (A2 ) hold and

det A0  = 0. If there exist a positive number  > 0, a scalar p2
and a transfer function K1 (s) such that

R(s) = Cr (sI I Ag )1 Br + Dr

where

(19)

where P = diag{P1 , p2 } and (As , bs , cs , 2 /1 ) is a state

space realization of Hs (s) in (15). By Lemma 2 and KYP
Lemma (Rantzer, 1996) we can imply that Re Hs (i) > 0 for
all  R and thus the result follows from Theorem 1. 
In what follows, we will provide strategies of designing a
strictly proper transfer function K1 (s) such that the conditions
of Theorem 2 are satised.
In fact, from (14), (16) and (17), R(s) can be expressed
as R(s) = F
(Ps , Ks ), where F
(Ps , Ks ) is a lower linear
fractional transformation (Zhou & Doyle, 1998), Ps and Ks
have state space realizations, respectively,

(20)

B1 = b0 [2 1], D21 = d[2 1],



 
p2
p2
C1 =
c0 , D12 = d
,
0
0


C2 = c0 ,

( + 2 d)p2
D11 = 1
2 ( + p2 d)


1
2 ( + p2 d)
2
1

Therefore, the problem of designing the transfer function K1 (s)

such that R(s) is extended strictly positive real and I + Ag
is stable is equivalent to nding Ks such that F
(Ps , Ks ) is
internally stable and ESPR. In terms of Remark of Theorem 4.1
(Weiqian et al., 1994), the following results follow immediately.
Theorem 3. Suppose that assumptions (A1 ), (A2 ) hold and
det A0  = 0. Then for a given scalar p2 and a positive number
 satisfying (ii) of Theorem 2 there exist matrices Ak , bk and
ck such that R(s) = F
(Ps , Ks ) is ESPR and I + Ag is stable
if and only if the following LMIs:

T B 
Ap W1 +W1 ATp +B2 W2 +W2T B2T W1 C1T +W2T D12
1
T )
C1 W1 +D12 W2 B1T
(D11 +D11
< 0,
(21)


W3 Ap +ATp W3 +W4 C2 +C2T W4T W3 B1 +W4 D21 C1T
T W T C
T )
B1T W3 +D21
(D11 +D11
1
4
<0
(22)
have solutions W1 , W2 , W3 , W4 such that W1 > 0, W3 > 0. And
the spectral radius (Y X) < 1, where X = W11 , Y = W31 .
Moreover, when these conditions are satised the matrices
Ak , bk , ck can be expressed as
bk = (I Y X)1 L,

ck = F ,

Ak = Ap + B2 F + (I Y X)1 LC 2 + 
I + dbk ck ,

(23)

where F = W2 W11 , L = W31 W4 and

T 1
 = (B1 +(I Y X)1 LD 21 )(D11 +D11
) (C1 B1T X
T
T 1
+D12 F )(I Y X)1 Y F T (B2T X+D12
(D11 +D11
)

(C1 B1T X+D12 F ))+(I Y X)1 Y R F ,

RF = (Ap + B2 F )T X + X(Ap + B2 F )
T 1
)
+ (C1 + D12 F B1T X)T (D11 + D11

(C1 + D12 F B1T X).

In addition, if det Ak  = 0, (Ag , bg ) is controllable, (Ag , cg )
is observable, then the closed-loop system dened by Fig. 2
is pendulum-like and Lagrange stable, where Ag , bg , cg are
dened by (14).
In terms of Theorems 2 and 3, the following procedure of
controller design is provided.

J. Wang et al. / Automatica 42 (2006) 145 150

Procedure 1. (i) Choose a scalar p2 and a positive number

 > 0 satisfying
d 2 p22

500

22
[2 (1 + 2 )d]p2 + 2 > 0.
1

(ii) Solve LMIs (21), (22) and check (Y X) < 1.

(iii) Calculate Ak , bk , ck by (23) and check det Ak  = 0,
(Ag , bg ) is controllable and (Ag , cg ) is observable. A controller
K(s) is obtained by (12).

-500

-1000

Corollary 1. If there exist scalars

, , p2 and a positive number  such that condition (ii) of Theorem 2 holds and G1 (s)
and G2 (s) are all ESPR, where

-1500

G1 (s) = (C1
D12 B2T )(sI Ap +
B2 B2T )1 B1 + D11 ,

-2000

G2 (s) = C1 (sI

Ap + C2T C2 )1 (B1

C2T D21 ) + D11 ,

then there exist matrices W1 > 0, W2 =

B2T W1 , W3 > 0, W4 =
W3 C2T such that (21) and (22) hold. Furthermore, if
(Y X) < 1, then the results of Theorem 3 are true.

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

10

Fig. 3. The states of the pendulum-like system (25).

60
50

5. Example
Example. Consider a linear perturbed system:






0 1
0
0
(t, ),
x =
x+
u+
1
1
0 
 = [ 1 0 ] x,

40
30

(24)

where (t, ) =  cos t sin 

sin 2 cos 2t sin 2 in
which  > 0, ,
, are numbers. It is obvious that (t, ) satises condition (3), where 1 = 2 = || + 2|
| + 2| |. When
u = 0, that is, there is no control in the system we can get
 +  +  cos t cos  +
sin 2 + cos 2t sin 2 = 0,

(25)

where  =  /2. Note that the above system (25) is a

pendulum-like system which describes the work of synchronous
single-phase motor with pulsing vibrating moment (Leonov et
al., 1996; Morary, 1970). The boundedness of solutions for
the above system is basic and important. Let  = 0.001,  =
1,
= 0.2, = 1. Choosing initial value x0 = (30, 10), from
Fig. 3, we nd that the solution of system (24) with u = 0 is
not bounded.
From (24) we know that A0 = 0.001, b0 = 1, c0 = 1, d = 0.
Choosing  = 1, p2 = 3, by solving LMIs (21) and (22) we
can nd: Ak = 90.7176, bk = 64.5385, ck = 9.0076. In
terms of Procedure 1 we obtain a linear controller K(s) as
K(s) = ck Ak (sI Ak )1 bk + ck bk =

581.3402s
,
s + 90.7176

such that the closed-loop system described by Fig. 2 is Lagrange

stable. The form of state space for the closed-loop system can
be expressed as
xcl = Acl x + bcl ,

 = ccl x,  = (t, ),

20
10
0
-10

Fig. 4. The states of the closed-loop feedback system.

where


90.7186 581.4309 0
Acl =
1.0000
0
0 ,
0
1.0000
0
ccl = [ 0 1.0000 90.7176 ] .

 
1
bcl = 0 ,
0

Fig. 4 describes the states of the closed-loop nonlinear feedback

system with initial value x0 = (30, 10, 10) which is bounded.
By Remark 2, the closed-loop system is also a pendulum j Z}, where d T =
like system with respect to
= {j d,
[0 0 0.0693].
6. Conclusions
In this paper, the problem of controller design for the linear
perturbed systems guaranteeing the closed-loop systems with
pendulum-like property and Lagrange stability is transformed
into the extended strictly positive real control problem which

J. Wang et al. / Automatica 42 (2006) 145 150

is formulated as LMI problem with spectral radius condition. It

is non-convex problem much like output feedback H control
problem with low order controller which can be handled by a
given method (Ghaoui & Niculescu, 2000).
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Jinzhi Wang received the M.S. degree in

mathematics from Northeast Normal University,
China, in 1988 and Ph.D. degree in control theory from Peking University in 1998. From July
1998 to February 2000 she was a post-doctor
at Institute of Systems Science, the Chinese
Academy of Sciences. From March 2000 to
August 2000 she was a research associate in
the University of Hong Kong. She is currently
an associate professor at the Department of
Mechanics and Engineering Science, Peking
University. Her research interests include
robust control and control of nonlinear dynamical systems.
Zhisheng Duan was born in Inner Mongolia,
China, in 1972. He received the M.S. degree
in mathematics from Inner Mongolia University and the Ph.D. degree in control theory
from Peking University in 1997 and 2000,
respectively. From 2000 to 2002, he was a
post-doctor at the Department of Mechanics
and Engineering Science, Peking University.
He received 2001 Chinese Control Conference
Guan-ZhaoZhi Award. Since 2002, he has
been with the Center for Systems and Control,
Peking University, as a teacher. His research
interests include robust control, stability of interconnected systems and
frequency-domain method of nonlinear systems.
Lin Huang received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in mechanics from Peking University, in 1957
and 1961, respectively. In 1961, he joined the
Department of Mechanics, Peking University,
where he is a Professor of Control Theory. His
research interests include stability of dynamical
systems, robust control and nonlinear systems.
He has authored three books, authored or coauthored more than 150 papers in the elds of
stability theory and control. He is currently a
member of the Chinese Academy of Science.