LMIs - A fundamental tool in analysis and controller design for discrete linear repetitive processes

Discrete linear repetitive processes are a distinct class of two-dimensional (2-D) linear systems with applications in areas ranging from long-wall coal cutting through to iterative learning control schemes. The feature which makes them distinct from other classes of 2-D linear systems is that information propagation in one of the two distinct directions only occurs over a finite duration. This, in turn, means that a distinct systems theory must be developed for them. In this paper, an LMI approach is used to produce highly significant new results on the stability analysis of these processes and the design of control schemes for them. These results are, in the main, for processes with singular dynamics and for those with so-called dynamic boundary conditions. Unlike other classes of 2-D linear systems, these feedback control laws have a firm physical basis, and the LMI setting is also shown to provide a (potentially) very powerful setting in which to characterize the robustness properties of these processes.