Analyzing the Stability of Switched Systems Using Common Zeroing-Output Systems

This paper introduces the notion of common zeroing-output systems (CZOS) to analyze the stability of switched systems. The concept of CZOS allows one to verify weak zero-state detectability. It characterizes a common behavior of any individual subsystem when the output signal for each subsystem is “approaching” zero. Heuristically speaking, it removes the effect of switching behavior, and thus enables one to analyze stability properties in systems with complex switching signals. With the help of CZOS, the Krasovskii–LaSalle theorem can be extended to switched nonlinear time-varying systems with both arbitrary switching and more general restricted switching cases. For switched nonlinear time-invariant systems, the needed detectability condition is further simplified, leading to several new stability results. Particularly, when a switched linear time-invariant system is considered, it is possible to generate a recursive method, which combines a Krasovskii–LaSalle result and a nested Matrosov result, to find a CZOS if it exists. The power of the proposed CZOS is demonstrated by consensus problems in literature to obtain a stronger convergence result with weaker conditions.