On the design of approximate non-linear parametric controllers

This paper focuses on the design of non-linear parametric controllers, around a nominal input/output trajectory of a discrete-time non-linear system. The main result provided herein is a relationship between the tracking performance of the closed-loop control system in the neighbourhood of a nominal trajectory, and some local features (the first-order linear approximations about the nominal trajectory) of the non-linear mappings which characterize the plant and the feedback controller. Such a result can be used to predict the dynamic behaviour of the control system, and to reduce the computational complexity of the optimization task associated with the tuning of the parametric feedback controller.