Stability and stabilization of linear sampled-data systems with multi-rate samplers and time driven zero order holds

In multi-rate sampled-data systems, a continuous-time plant is controlled by a discrete-time controller which is located in the feedback loop between sensors with different sampling rates and actuators with different refresh rates. The main contribution of this paper is to propose sufficient Krasovskii-based stability and stabilization criteria for linear sampled-data systems, with multi-rate samplers and time driven zero order holds. For stability analysis, it is assumed that an exponentially stabilizing controller is already designed in continuous-time and is implemented as a discrete-time controller. For each sensor (or actuator), the problem of finding an upper bound on the lowest sampling frequency (or refresh rate) that guarantees exponential stability is cast as an optimization problem in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Furthermore, sufficient conditions for controller synthesis are formulated as LMIs. It is shown through examples that choosing the right sensors (or actuators) with adequate sampling frequencies (or refresh rates) has a considerable impact on stability of the closed-loop system.