Robust Output Regulation of Uncertain Linear Time-Varying Systems

Abstract

Robust output regulation for linear time-varying systems has remained an open problem for decades. By augmenting the classical immersion viewpoint, we propose the trajectory-matching system immersion framework. It reformulates the regulator equation as a forced system and demonstrates that finding an internal model is equivalent to reproducing the non-decaying output trajectories of this forced system by constructing an unforced one. This perspective yields an exact algebraic boundary for finite-dimensional internal models, termed finite linear parameterization. It further reveals a distinctive obstruction in time-varying systems: even highly structured, finite-dimensional affine parametric uncertainties can generate infinite-dimensional families of non-decaying error-zeroing mappings, thereby precluding exact robust regulation via linear finite-dimensional internal models in general. Hence, we develop a general finite-dimensional design for approximate robust regulation, which yields a bounded tracking error and avoids explicitly solving the regulator equation. Additionally, it recovers exact regulation for certain structured uncertainty classes. Overall, these results clarify the intrinsic limitation of exact finite-dimensional robust regulation for uncertain LTV systems and provide a general and constructive framework for designing LTV internal-model-based regulators.