Stability of nonlinear differential systems with state-dependent delayed impulses

We consider nonlinear differential systems with state-dependent delayed impulses (impulses which involve the delayed state of the system for which the delay is state-dependent). Such systems arise naturally from a number of applications and the stability issue is complex due to the state-dependence of the delay. We establish general and applicable results for uniform stability, uniform asymptotic stability and exponential stability of the systems by using the impulsive control theory and some comparison arguments. We show how restrictions on the change rates of states and impulses should be imposed to achieve system's stability, in comparison with general impulsive delay differential systems with state dependent delay in the nonlinearity, or the differential systems with constant delays. In our approach, the boundedness of the state-dependent delay is not required but derives from the stability result obtained. Examples are given to demonstrate the sharpness and applicability of our general results and the proposed approach. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.