Robustness and stability

Robustness of a control system denotes the insensitivity to parameter changes,

model errors (in model-based control), and disturbances (including disturbance

inputs and noise in various control signals). Stability of a control system refers to

a bounded response when the inputs themselves are bounded.

This is termed bounded-input-bounded-output (BIBO) stability. A special case is

asymptotic stability where the response asymptotically approaches zero (origin)

when excited from the origin and the inputs are maintained at zero value

thereafter. Then, robustness may be interpreted as stability under system

disturbances.
The degree of stability of a control system is a measure of distance to the state
of marginal stability (i.e., almost unstable or steadily oscillating state under
zero input conditions). This distance is termed the stability margin of which
phase margin and gain margin are special measures for linear systems in the
frequency domain. Similarly, a robustness index of a control system may be
determined by establishing a representative bound for a system parameter or
signal disturbance within which the control system will remain stable but
outside which it is likely to become unstable. Note, however, that fuzzy logic
control is not a model-based technique in the sense that it does not employ an
explicit model of the process. Consequently, in this case, robustness cannot be
defined with respect to model errors. Since robustness is traditionally defined
in terms of stability.
 Stability of fuzzy systems

Two approaches may be used to study stability in a fuzzy system:

(1) Represent the fuzzy controller by a nonlinear model, through

simplifying assumptions, and perform stability analysis using traditional

approaches (e.g., Lyapunov function method).

(2) Interpret stability as the stability of the fuzzy logic inference

mechanism. Study stability of the decision-making system, largely at the

system level.
 Traditional approach to stability analysis

The first approach is what is predominantly used in the published literature,

perhaps due to the convenience and availability of well-established

techniques, particularly Lyapunov-like approaches for the stability analysis

of nonlinear systems. However, this is a somewhat artificial (or synthetic)

way of dealing with stability of a fuzzy system, and may not be generally

valid. The reason is simple. Once the fuzzy subsystem is represented by an

analytic nonlinear model with nonfuzzy parameters and variables, one no

longer has a fuzzy system with its inherent fuzzy features.

consider the nonlinear state space model given by
 Eigen-fuzzy sets
Analogous to how eigenvalues and eigenvectors can predict the natural
response and stability of a crisp, linear system, it is expected that the
eigenfuzzy sets will provide useful information concerning stability of a
fuzzy decision-making system. For a given fuzzy relation (rule base) R(x, y),
its eigen-fuzzy sets are defined as the family of fuzzy sets E such that
 Iterative method

An iterative method to obtain the greatest eigen-fuzzy set of R is given below.