On parameter-dependent Lyapunov functions for robust stability of linear systems

For a linear system affected by real parametric uncertainty, this paper focuses on robust stability analysis via quadratic-in-the-state Lyapunov functions polynomially dependent on the parameters. The contribution is twofold. First, if n denotes the system order and m the number of parameters, it is shown that it is enough to seek a parameter-dependent Lyapunov function of given degree 2nm in the parameters. Second, it is shown that robust stability can be assessed by globally minimizing a multivariate scalar polynomial related with this Lyapunov matrix. A hierarchy of LMI relaxations is proposed to solve this problem numerically, yielding simultaneously upper and lower bounds on the global minimum with guarantee of asymptotic convergence.