NONLINEAR ASPECTS OF SAMPLED-DATA CONTROL SYSTEMS* by RLE, Kalman Columbia University 1, Introduction Most present work dealing with nonlinear control systems leans on two erueial assumptions: A) The system is deterministic. B) The system is autonamous, i.e., the components of the system are time-invariant and the inpute to the system are not functions of time. ‘The study of such problems was initiatedby Poincaré bn the 1880", ‘The underiying mathematical theory has progressed litte since the turn of the century, but it was sufficiently well developed even then to ermita wide variety of applications to current technological problems! ® Assumption A is quite natural, There are many practical res sons why B should be relaxed, Unfortunately, even the most basic mathematical questions abost deterministic, nonautonornous systems ae unanswered today, which makes the engineering study of much sys~ tems a very risky undertaking, Neither the tools nor the answers sought are clearly evident at the monent. This paper is intended to give a number of partial results in order, itis hoped, to place the problem tore clearly in sight as well a8 t0 alert the uninitiated to numerous pitfalls and difficulties, Specifically, the effect of simple nonlinearities in sampled-data control systems will be analyzed. A linear sampled-dato system (cf. Section 2} ie a special caae of a linear, time-varying system, the time varying component ss the sampling suiteh. The analysis of such sy tems is clearly understood and well developed at thie time. 4° Like= wise, if simple nonlinearity (euch a8 saturation) is introduced in a Sinear autonomous system, the analysis can be carried out again in a more or less routine fashion!~3 at least when the differential equation. 1s of the second order. Yet when sampling ad nonlinearity are pre= sent in the same system, © host of nev phenomena arise which can hardly be anticipated trom the study of linear sampled-data systems ‘Presented st the Synposiun on Nonlinear Cigcuit Anolysis, Polytechnic Institute of brooklyn, Aneil 25 1956, ama24 NONLINEAR CIRCUIT ANALYSIS or nonlinear systems without sampling. The interaction between sam~ pling and nonlinearity brings about unexpected probleme Interest in sampled-data systems containing nonlinear elements stems from practical problems, Many control systems are operated by intermittent signals (radar, sonar, digital computers, etc.) and it i often necessary to lake account of physical imperfections, such as saturation, which render the system nonlinear. Also, certain corn ication systems ("delta modulation") use a nonlinear sempled-data servomechanism as the encoding device, 8-7 The problem is also of considerable theoretical importance in the nonlinear field, as will be apparent later. Well-known means of analyzing autonomous nonlinear systems, such ap the describing-function and elementary phase-plane methods (cf, Section 3 and 4) can give only a limited amount of insight into non- ‘near sampled-data systems because it is not known what new types of nonlinear phenomena can arise. The first problem is to discover all possible phenomena. The general investigation reported here cannat answer very specific questions but it provides a better understanding fof the problem without which a successful engineering approach hardly seems possible: ‘The main results are: 1) Under rather restricted conditions a nonlinear sampled-data system may behave ina manner very similar to autonomous nonlinear systems (Section 5) 43) In the most general case, the behavior of s non- linear sampled-data system can be described only in probabilistic terms. Hence, from a physical point of view, certain random processes may be re garded as being caused by nonlinearities. (Section 6), 2._Basic Terminology and Assumptions. ‘A sampled-data Syston is one in which a signal, usually the er- ror, is received internuittently (usually periodically) rather than con- Unuously. The standard method for analyzing the sampling operation |g to introduce the sam-ling sv/tch. This is essentially a mathemati- cal artifice which may be thought of es converting a continuous signal ft) into a sequence e%(t) of periodic impulses, T seconds apart, whose area is the value of the signal at the sampling instante, e(kT), We write for simplicity, (kT) = ej. To represent the sampling pro- cess ag it occurs physically, It is necessary to add to the sampling switch @ hold network. For instance, if the sampling process consists physically of holding signal constant at the previous sampled value until the next sampling instant, sn equivalent representation is obtained hy feeding the output of the sampling switch into a zero-order hold net= work which has the transfer function (i - e°®T)/s; the output x(t) of he hold network js then 2 sequence of steps whose magnitude variesSAMPLED-DATA CONTROL SYSTEMS 25 discontinuously at the sampling instants» KT, The process of illus~ trated by Figs. 1a-c. aw x) we figure ‘To avoid confusion sometimes found in the literature, note that both the sampling switeh and hold ne: sork obey the principle of super position. Hence, systems which are originally linear ren.ain so even afier the introduction of any finite number of sampling switches and hold networks, 1 the dynamic variables in a linear control system such as output, error, ete, obey an n-th order linear differential equa~ ton, then after the introduction of a single sampling switch and zere~ order hold network in the main loop, the values of the same quantities at the sampling instants obey an n-th order linear «difference equation Powerful operational methods (so-called z-transforms) are available for obtaining and solving of these closed-loop difference equations, #5 paper will be re~ to the situation shown in Fig. 2. ‘This system consists of 8 satnpling switch followed by (il) a zero-arder hold network, (ii) & nonlinearity, to be specified in each case and denoted by f, Gv) an For simplicity, most considerations in thi stricte