Mixed sensitivity minimization problems with rationall ¹-optimal solutions

Abstract

Up to this time, the only known method to solve the discrete-time mixed sensitivity minimization problem inl ¹ has been to use a certain infinite-dimensional linear programming approach, presented by Dahleh and Pearson in 1988 and later modified by Mendlovitz. That approach does not give in general true optimal solutions; only suboptimal ones are obtained. Here, for the first time, the truel ¹-optimal solutions are found for some mixed sensitivity minimization problems. In particular, Dahleh and Pearson construct an 11h order suboptimal compensator for a certain second-order plan with first-order weight functions; it is shown that the unique optimal compensator for that problem is rational and of order two. The author discovered this fact when trying out a new scheme of solving the infinite-dimensional linear programming system. This scheme is of independent interest, because when it is combined with the Dahleh-Pearson-Mendlovitz scheme, it gives both an upper bound and a lower bound on the optimal performance; hence, it provides the missing error bound that enables one to truncate the solution. Of course, truncation is appropriate only if the order of the optimal compensator is too high. This may indeed be the case, as is shown with an example where the order of the optimal compensator can be arbitrarily high.