Linear Parameter-Varying Embedding of Nonlinear Models with Reduced Conservativeness

In this paper, a systematic approach is developed to embed the dynamical description of a nonlinear system into a linear parameter-varying (LPV) system representation. Initially, the nonlinear functions in the model representation are approximated using multivariate polynomial regression. Taking into account the residuals of the approximation as the potential scheduling parameters, a principle component analysis (PCA) is conducted to introduce a limited set of auxiliary scheduling parameters in coping with the trade-off between model accuracy and complexity. In this way, LPV embedding of the nonlinear systems and scheduling variable selection are jointly performed such that a good trade-off between complexity and conservativeness can be found. The developed LPV model depends polynomially on some of the state variables and affinely on the introduced auxiliary scheduling variables, which all together comprise the overall scheduling vector. The methodology is applied to a two-degree of freedom (2-DOf) robotic manipulator in addition to an academic example to reveal the effectiveness of the proposed method and to show the merits of the presented approach compared with some available results in the literature. Copyright (C) 2020 The Authors.