Realization-Stability Lemma for Controller Synthesis

Abstract: We have witnessed the emergence of several controller parameterizations and the corresponding synthesis methods, including Youla, system level, input-output, and many other new proposals. Meanwhile, under the same synthesis method, there are multiple realizations to adopt. Different synthesis methods/realizations target different plants/scenarios. Also, various robust results are proposed to deal with different perturbed system structures. Except for some case-by-case studies, we don't currently have a unified framework to understand their relationships. To address the issue, we show that existing controller synthesis methods and realization proposals are all special cases of a simple lemma, the realization-stability lemma. The lemma leads to easier equivalence proofs among existing methods and robust stability conditions for general system analysis. It also enables the formulation of a general controller synthesis problem, which provides a unified foundation for controller synthesis, realization derivation, and robust stability analysis.