LMI characterization of structural and robust stability

Introduces several stability conditions for a given class of matrices expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities, being thus simply and efficiently computable. Diagonal and simultaneous stability, both characterized by polytopes of matrices, are addressed. Using this approach a method particularly attractive to test a given matrix for D-stability is proposed. Lyapunov parameter dependent functions are built in order to reduce conservativeness of the stability conditions. The key idea is to relate Hurwitz stability with a positive realness condition.