Notes on data-driven output-feedback control of linear MIMO systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a data-driven method for designing output-feedback controllers for general MIMO systems, overcoming previous limitations by constructing alternative state vectors that satisfy necessary rank conditions.

Contribution

It proposes a novel approach to data-driven output-feedback control for MIMO systems that works without the restrictive pℓ=n condition, enabling broader applicability.

Findings

Guarantees rank conditions under persistent excitation

Enables direct data-driven control for general MIMO systems

Overcomes limitations of previous methods

Abstract

Recent works have approached the data-driven design of dynamic output-feedback controllers for discrete-time LTI systems by constructing non-minimal state vectors composed of past inputs and outputs. Depending on the system's complexity (order $n$, lag $\ell$ and number of outputs $p$), it was observed in several works that such an approach presents significant limitations. In particular, many works require to restrict the class of LTI systems to those satisfying the relation $p\ell=n$. In this note, we show how to address the general MIMO case (for which $p\ell\geq n$ in general) by constructing an alternative non-minimal state vector from data. Different from the existing literature, our method guarantees the satisfaction of certain rank conditions when the system is persistently excited, thereby facilitating the direct data-driven dynamic output-feedback control of MIMO systems by applying methods that were originally developed for the input-state data setting.