A Framework for Prescribed-Time Control Design via Time-Scale Transformation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified framework for designing prescribed-time controllers for nonlinear systems with constraints, using a time-scale transformation that relates infinite-time and prescribed-time systems, enabling flexible and constructive control design.

Contribution

It proposes a novel time-domain mapping method that generalizes prescribed-time control design for constrained nonlinear systems, incorporating a flexible mapping function and constructive mathematical tools.

Findings

Unified framework for prescribed-time control design

Conditions for prescribed-time stability and attractivity derived

Flexible mapping function enhances control scheme adaptability

Abstract

This letter presents a unified framework for the design of prescribed-time controllers under time-varying input and state constraints for normal-form unknown nonlinear systems with uncertain input gain. The proposed approach is based on a time-domain mapping method by which any infinite-time system can be corresponded to a prescribed-time system and vice versa. It is shown that the design of a constrained nonasymptotic prescribed-time controller can be reduced to the asymptotic control design for an associated constrained infinite-time system. Fa\`a di Bruno's formula and Bell polynomials are used for a constructive representation of the associated infinite-time system. The presented results are not confined to a particular mapping function, which adds to the flexibility of the proposed scheme. It is shown that necessary and sufficient conditions on the uniform (practical) prescribed-time stability and attractivity can be obtained as corollaries of the main result.