Data-driven stabilization of polynomial systems using density functions

Abstract: This paper studies data-driven stabilization of a class of unknown polynomial systems using data corrupted by bounded noise. Existing work addressing this problem has focused on designing a controller and a Lyapunov function so that a certain state-dependent matrix is negative definite, which ensures asymptotic stability of all closed-loop systems compatible with the data. However, as we demonstrate in this paper, considering the negative definiteness of this matrix introduces conservatism, which limits the applicability of current approaches. To tackle this issue, we develop a new method for the data-driven stabilization of polynomial systems using the concept of density functions. The control design consists of two steps. Firstly, a dual Lyapunov theorem is used to formulate a sum of squares program that allows us to compute a rational state feedback controller for all systems compatible with the data. By the dual Lyapunov theorem, this controller ensures that the trajectories of the closed-loop system converge to zero for almost all initial states. Secondly, we propose a method to verify whether the designed controller achieves asymptotic stability of all closed-loop systems compatible with the data. Apart from reducing conservatism of existing methods, the proposed approach can also readily take into account prior knowledge on the system parameters. A key technical result developed in this paper is a new type of S-lemma for a specific class of matrices that, in contrast to the classical S-lemma, avoids the use of multipliers.