Course on LMI optimization with applications in control
(Didier Henrion, LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France)

Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic - November 2003

Venue and dates

The course is given at the Czech Technical University, Charles Square, down-town Prague (Karlovo Namesti 13, 12135 Praha 2) from Monday November 10, 2003 to Friday November 14, 2003.

It consists of five two-hour lectures (10am to 12am) and three two-hour labs (2pm to 4pm).

Description

This is a course for graduate students or researchers with a background in linear control systems, linear algebra and convex optimization.

The focus is on semidefinite programming (SDP), or optimization over linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), an extension of linear programming to the cone of positive semidefinite matrices. Since the 1990s, LMI methods have found numerous applications mostly in combinatorial optimization, systems control and signal processing.

Outline and Slides

In the first part of the course, historical developments of LMIs and SDP are surveyed. Convex sets that can be represented with LMIs are classified and studied. LMI relaxations are introduced to solve non-convex polynomial optimization problems. Finally, interior-point algorithms are described to solve LMI problems and latest achievements in software and solvers are reported.

The second part of the course focuses on the application of LMI techniques to solve several control problems traditionally deemed as difficult, such as robustness analysis of linear and nonlinear systems, or design of fixed-order robust controllers with Hinf specifications. The originality of the approach is in the simultaneous use of algebraic or polynomial techniques (as opposed to classical state-space methods) and modern convex optimization techniques.

See a more recent version of the course for downloadable lecture slides.

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  • Part I - LMI optimization
  • Part II - LMIs in control

    Homeworks and Labs

    Homeworks are handed out during the course. Some of this material is used during the labs. Full written solutions to the homeworks and labs (with Matlab scripts) are available on request.

    For the labs we use the Polynomial Toolbox and the YALMIP interface to define and solve LMI problems under the Matlab environment.

    Acknowledgements

    Thanks to (in alphabetical order) Denis Arzelier, Miguel Bernal, Pavel Burget, Martin Cech, Marcin Cychowski, Tiziano Fiorenzani, Michal Kocvara, Mahbub Gani, Ivan Havel, Ales Kruczek, Zdenek Hanzalek, Zdenek Hurak, Jiri Mertl, Arturo Molina-Cristobal, Volkan Nalbantoglu, Sorin Olaru, Wojciech Paszke, Dimitri Peaucelle, Jaroslav Pekar, Stanislaw Pietrzko, Jiri Roubal, Burak Seymen, Jaroslav Sobota, Jan Stecha, Jos Sturm, Petr Urban and Lieven Vandenberghe for their feedback.


    Last updated on 13 December 2006