On the region of attraction of nonlinear quadratic systems

Quadratic systems play an important role in the modelling of a wide class of nonlinear processes (electrical, robotic, biological, etc.). For such systems, it is of mandatory importance not only to determine whether the origin of the state space is locally asymptotically stable but also to ensure that the operative range is included into the convergence region of the equilibrium. Based on this observation, this paper considers the following problem: given the zero equilibrium point of a nonlinear quadratic system, assumed to be locally asymptotically stable, and a certain polytope in the state space containing the origin, determine whether this polytope belongs to the region of attraction of the equilibrium. The proposed algorithm requires the solution of a suitable feasibility problem involving linear matrix inequalities constraints. An example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed procedure by exploiting a population interaction model of three species. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.