New sufficient conditions for robust stability analysis of interval matrices

This letter presents new sufficient conditions for robust Hurwitz stability of interval matrices. The proposed conditions are based on two approaches: (i) finding a common Lyapunov matrix for the interval family and (ii) converting the robust stability problem into a robust non-singularity problem using Kronecker operations. The main contribution of the letter is to derive accurate and computationally simple optimal estimates of the robustness margin and spectral bound of general interval matrices. The evaluation of the condition relies on the solutions of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) and eigenvalue problems, both of which are solved very efficiently. The improvements gained by using the proposed conditions are demonstrated through application to previous examples in the literature. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.